«Children can't just philosophise like that»

Mr Buchs, after the death of his great-grandfather, my seven-year-old son kept seeing the same raven on our terrace and saying: «Maybe it's great-grandpa visiting us.» Is there a philosophical thought behind this sentence?

That is an interesting statement that your child has made. However, it seems questionable to me whether there is a need to clarify the idea of life after death in a philosophical way behind this statement. Perhaps your son has heard stories in which people transform into animals; this often happens in fairy tales. Perhaps he has linked this phenomenon of transformation and his experience with the death of his great-grandfather and thus found a way to deal with the death of a loved one. Because an event such as the death of a relative can trigger thoughtfulness in us adults, there is a danger of romanticising such statements by children.

In what way?

We interpret it as an expression of profound, intensive philosophical reflection. Of course, your son's statement is an achievement worthy of note and appreciation, but it cannot be readily interpreted as philosophical in a technical sense.

What exactly is philosophising?

We understand philosophising in its professional sense as a competence: a person who can philosophise firstly recognises fundamental questions and asks them. Secondly, they can take a position on fundamental questions such as «Do we always have to tell the truth?», «Is it okay to kill animals?» or «What is a good friendship?» and express their opinion on them. Thirdly, and particularly challenging: he can justify philosophical opinions in dialogue with others and challenge them with the help of objections.

A child's profound statements should not be interpreted as philosophical.

But it is precisely at the so-called questioning age, i.e. between the ages of three and five, that children ask very profound questions. Isn't that when they start to philosophise?

Young children learn that they can achieve something by asking questions. They discover the tool of the why-question and use it extensively to expand their knowledge of the world or to gain the attention and affection of their carers. Adults sometimes tend to take such «why» questions from children as a sign of philosophical interest.

However, the question «Why?» is generally an expression of the need to understand something and to be given reasons for it. This can relate to everyday decisions such as «Why can't I spend the night at Mia's?» or to natural and technical phenomena such as «Why is it snowing?». When adults take children's «why» questions seriously, they strengthen their general ability to think and act rationally.

And I already thought that children were born as little philosophers.

Nobody is born as something specific. Just as a mathematician or a cyclist has to develop the respective skills and abilities, philosophising also requires skills that must first be stimulated, developed and trained.

What does it take to really philosophise with children?

In contrast to a good conversation, which allows for a change of topic, in philosophising the participants focus on a fundamental question and try to stick to it. Furthermore, philosophising requires a special way of working in order to be able to examine such a question with profit. This refers to the aforementioned tools of reflection such as asking questions, expressing one's opinion, giving reasons or being able to formulate an objection. The central aim of philosophising is therefore to enable children to practise and further develop the reflective tools required for philosophising.

What is the best way to do this?

A philosophical discussion with children needs a person to stimulate and guide the exchange. This role is multifaceted: The facilitator stimulates philosophical reflection with a suitable impulse. On the one hand, they guide the subsequent conversation by asking questions that stimulate reflection on various aspects of the topic. On the other hand, she asks so-called formal impulse questions, with which she asks the children to use the aforementioned tools for reflection, such as reasoning or raising objections. Only then does the discussion go into depth.

A question like «What is truth?» has little appeal to children. It needs to be embedded in their world.

However, despite their active role, the task of the discussion leader is not to steer the children's thoughts towards a specific result or realisation. They remain open and reserved with regard to the development of the content of the conversation.

That's the theoretical basis. What can this look like in practice?

Children are usually not easily motivated to think philosophically. If the facilitator simply asks the children a basic question such as «What is justice or truth?» at the beginning, a lively conversation is unlikely to ensue. The reason for this is that children are unlikely to feel addressed by a question in this abstract form.

For a fundamental question to become meaningful for children, it needs to be embedded in their world. Short stories in which the main character finds themselves in a tense situation or even a dilemma that unsettles them or makes a decision difficult are suitable for this. One example is the story of the birthday cake.

Tell us.

Tamara is invited to Adrian's birthday party. The children are sitting round the table eating cake, but Tamara doesn't like it. When Adrian's mum asks her if she likes the cake, she says: «Yes, it's delicious.» Her mother then offers her a second piece, which she has to fetch from the kitchen first. In the meantime, Tiam exclaims: «Haha, I've seen that you don't like the cake at all, Tamara. Now you have to eat a second piece. That serves you right. You shouldn't have lied.»

How does the person conducting the dialogue then proceed?

The facilitator can now ask an initial impulse question such as: «Who agrees with Tiam? Did Tamara lie to Adrian's mum or not?» After the children have commented on this, the facilitator asks the formal question: «Why do you think yes/no?» The children are asked to give reasons for their opinion. In a further step, the following question can be asked: «Does anyone have an objection to a reason given?» Further stimulus questions aim to clarify key basic terms and norms: «What is a lie? Is lying always forbidden?» By combining content-related and formal questions in this way, the discussion becomes more and more in-depth.

Philosophising requires sufficient undisturbed time and concentration.

So I can't just take advantage of a good moment with my children, sit down on the sofa with them and say: «Come on, let's philosophise a bit»?

The situation on the sofa is a good starting point, as the children usually feel safe and relaxed. Philosophising requires sufficient undisturbed time and concentration. In order to motivate children to think philosophically, it is advisable to encourage a philosophical discussion at home with the help of an impulse story. Parents or grandparents can draw on existing collections of stories.

You can download a thematically organised list of literature from our specialist website. Many picture books are also a good starting point for philosophising. However, as the problem is usually resolved at the end of such stories, we recommend interrupting the story at a tense point and using this energy to stimulate philosophical reflection: «Do you agree with character XY?» Or: «Do you think what character XY is doing here is right?»

My children often bring topics similar to the cake story to the lunch table, which are then also the subject of lively discussion. What distinguishes the discussion from philosophising?

If, like the character Tamara, your children are personally involved in a problem situation, they primarily want to find a concrete solution to the problem and discuss it with others. They probably have less of a need to explore the fundamental concepts involved in a philosophical reflection. For example, if your son is in an acute conflict with his friend and there are strong feelings involved, he is probably primarily interested in how he can deal with his feelings and his friend, and less interested in thinking in a fundamental way about what actually constitutes a good friendship.

Curriculum 21 mandates that all children from kindergarten onwards learn to ask philosophical questions and consider possible answers.

Encouraging children to develop these skills is an important task in the curriculum. In order to be able to implement this with a high level of quality, it is crucial that teachers receive appropriate training and further education. In seminars and further training courses, they learn about the didactics of philosophising with children, try it out in practice and exchange ideas about stumbling blocks.

It is recommended to start around the second kindergarten. Why at this time?

Children as young as five to six years old are interested in certain philosophical topics such as friendship, justice or humans and animals and are drawn to them. Children of this age also have the necessary linguistic and cognitive skills. As philosophising takes place in the mode of thinking and speaking, it requires complete language development, i.e. grammatically largely error-free speech in complex sentences. Children usually achieve this at the age of four to six, i.e. in the kindergarten years. Therefore, children can then - with age-appropriate impulse stories - take and practise the first basic steps of philosophising together.

Why is the school environment better suited to philosophising with children than the home environment?

Two factors are important. Firstly, the working atmosphere. The children know that the teacher can demand something of them, that school is about learning and that this involves effort. This also goes hand in hand with the clear allocation of roles: the teacher leads a philosophical discussion, the children are participants in the discussion.

Secondly, the size of the group is very important. A group of 10 to 15 students has proven to be very productive. A philosophical discussion is based on two fundamental, alternating movements of thought: Expressing and justifying opinions on the one hand, and challenging opinions and reasons through objections on the other. It is hardly possible to create such a stimulating discussion situation at home if only two to three people are involved.

The child needs to know that they will not be laughed at because of their views.

Can you give an example of these movements of thought?

In a third class, the question arose: What does happiness actually mean? In a first round, Sina defined this term as follows: «Happiness is when everything I wish for happens.» Another pupil challenged this definition with the following counter-example: «But what if Sina is angry and wishes for a hurricane to come and sweep her whole house away? If everything you wish for happens, then that too. Would Sina still be happy then?»

That's a good question that the boy asked. What happens at times like this?

The children recognise through the objection that Sina's definition of happiness is not tenable in its original form; it must be adapted or even dropped completely. It is easy to see here how the two thought processes of «contributing opinions» and «challenging opinions» are distributed among different children.

Are there any other general conditions that need to be taken into account?

A safe place is very important for a philosophical discussion. In a safe place, the child can trust that they will not be laughed at, personally attacked or ridiculed for their views. On the part of the other participants in the dialogue, such freedom of speech requires the social competence to listen carefully to others and allow them to express themselves.

Philosophising means distinguishing between strong and weak arguments.

What is truth? Is it permissible to lie? There is never one right answer to philosophical questions. How do children deal with this?

Yes, philosophical questions have no definitive answers. Different, sometimes irreconcilable opinions can be held on a single question. Philosophising thrives on the discussion of these different opinions: It is about supporting an opinion with the best possible reasons or arguments and defending it against possible objections. However, the fact that the results of philosophising are provisional should not lead to the conclusion that every opinion is equally correct and every argument equally valid. This would mean that philosophising is arbitrary and non-binding.

In philosophical debate, however, it is precisely a matter of distinguishing the strong arguments from the weak ones. However, philosophising is no different from the sciences in this respect. Research is characterised by the fact that answers from a study can and should be challenged by good arguments. For children, philosophising is therefore one way among others to become familiar with this feature of cognitive processes.

The skills learnt in philosophy are also the cornerstones for being part of a democratic society later on.

In particular, the attitude and willingness to question opinions and arguments, as well as the necessary argumentative and social skills that children practise when philosophising, are important for independent participation in democratic decision-making processes. However, this only accounts for a small part of a person's life. Philosophical reflection skills can play an important role in shaping a self-determined life overall by allowing children and adults to orientate themselves independently in fundamental questions of meaning and values instead of living according to the guidelines or ideas of others.

Life has many exciting but also very difficult things in store - the climate crisis, war in Europe. At the moment, we are in a situation that is difficult to understand, especially for children. Can philosophising help them to deal with such facts?

Only in a very limited sense. As a rule, the fear of war does not diminish when we philosophise about it, and a philosophical conversation is not psychological coaching or therapy. Perhaps philosophising can be helpful in an indirect way. As we have seen, philosophising helps children to orientate themselves in their thinking. When it comes to finding a personal point of view, for example in relation to the climate crisis, it can help if children and young people think about fundamental concepts such as responsibility, nature, science or economics, but always with the inclusion of reliable specialist knowledge.