A Critical Study of Relativism in Matthew
Lipmann’s
Theory of Education
Ghasem Purhasan, Fatemeh Sadr
Relativism
turns out to be one of the outcomes of Matthew Lipmann’s theory of education in
his philosophy for children. In this discussion various views and even
contradictory views have been propounded. Lipmann himself and some of his
advocates are of the view that philosophy for children neither in terms of
content nor form will lead to relativism. Some other people argue that though
the founders of this program deny such allegation but its outcomes bring in its
wake a kind of relativism. Through analytic-descriptive method the authors of
this article seek to answer the following questions: Will the program of the
philosophy for children as viewed by Matthew Lipmann lead to relativism? Here
by relativism is meant epistemological relativism. Accordingly, axiological
relativism which is one of the serious issues in this field will be excluded.
The authors are of the view that basing this program on Lipmann’s views may
yield a kind of relativism.
Key words:
philosophy
for children (F4C)
relativism
epistemological
relativism
self-
thinking
***
Children in Utopias: Training of Children in
Reformers and Philosophers Utopias
Mikaeil Rasoul Zadeh
By
utopia it means a society that enjoys certain political, economic, social, and
educational structures; a society that can lead the maximum number of its
members to maximum happiness. As a matter of fact, by writing utopian books,
the authors are not aimed at erecting such utopia in their country or in other
country. According to Plato, these works are considered to be just like
patterns that all countries can benefit from them and following which attain
their happiness. Utopianism first was developed by Plato and then other
philosophers in the world of Islam and Christianity followed him. Here we are
not going to deal with the well known figures in the field of utopian in the
world, but rather intend to cast some light on the training of children in the
utopia of reformers and philosophers. Based on the studies made on training,
the signification of training has two meanings: general and particular meaning.
Both meanings stress heavily on the importance of training of children and
youth and consider it as a means of bringing about changes in a society. In
this article the views of the Eastern and Western philosophers like Plato,
Aristotle, Augustine, Farabi, Tomasho Kampalana, and Thomas More on the notion
of utopia have been studied. Almost all of them followed the same universal and
logical principle. In certain issues such as religion, man, and God there are
certain differences between the Western and the Eastern utopias. To sum up,
while spirituality and divinity constitute the gist of Eastern utopia, the
Western utopia stresses on materiality and corporeality and this point is palpable
in their training of children. On the whole, utopians strongly stress on
education and training and look at training as a chief factor behind any
peaceful social change.
Key Terms
training
child
utopia
reformer
philosopher
***
A Study of the Impact of Teaching Logical
Thinking on the Social Confidence of Children
Sepideh Ensafi
Thinking
constitutes the main element of cognition and offers possible solutions for man
in his confrontation with problems. It also possesses certain elements (symbols
and signs) on the basis of which man through
education develops itself, recognizes its learning, and applies them as well.
There are two kinds of oriented thinking: critical thinking and creative
thinking. Critical thinking or logical thinking deals with assessment,
improvement, change, and reconstruction of a problem and pertains to the higher
levels of learning, namely analysis and synthesis.
With
respect to the positive impact of teaching philosophy on children and learning
on the basis of critical and logical thinking, the present work proceeds to
study the teaching of logical thinking to children and the process of gaining
social confidence. The methodology of this study is theoretical and deductive
and analytic. Moreover deductive studies constitute the basis of this
methodology.
Key Terms
logical thought
critical thought
social confidence
children
***
Philosophy and Children’s Rights
Mohammad Hosein Fazaili
*
Maturity
is a period of life that divides human life into two parts: the first part
consists in childhood that ranges from the embryonic life and ends up in
maturity. This period enjoys its own rules and rights including the right of
life, the right of education, and subordination as adumbrated in the religion.
The second period marks the period of responsibility and is indeed the
continuation of a movement or is a kind of turning point and every man in the
course of his life will enjoy vindication of rights. This issue changed into a
controversial issue among the jurists in the case of girls. With reference to
certain traditions (
riwayah) some people consider 9 as the age of
maturity, while some others oppose this view and argue that such verdicts are
not compatible with the facts and consider 13 as the age of maturity. Again
there are some other people who consider such criminal liability in such period
of life as the violation of human rights and stress on 18 as the age of
maturity. The author of the present article seeks to substantiate the popular
view. Drawing on some philosophical presuppositions he considers it as a
natural phenomenon and is of the view that it is for jurists to unveil it. The
opposing view also have been criticized and considered it as against the rights
of child.
Key Terms
childhood
maturity
natural
passion
responsibility
***
The
Impact of Thoughtful Stories on the Growth of Social
Skills
of Pre-school Children of Rasht City
Mustafa
Hedayati
*
The aim
of this research work is to study the impact of thoughtful stories on the
growth of social skills of pre-school children of Rasht city. For this purpose
two pre-schools have been selected causally. The number of each class student
is twenty and one class is subsumed under evidence and the other one under
test. Then by social skills questionnaire of Cartilage and Melbourne the
variable of social growth of student will be assessed. Before the
implementation of the plan there was no meaningful difference between the
social growths of two groups. Then students of the group test underwent
teaching thoughtful stories following research group for twelve weekly sessions
in forty minutes. The result came out as: the implementation of this program is
effective in the social growth of students. This study was an applied study,
that is, it enjoyed semi empirical method. Moreover, this research work was
tentative before and after the test of the student. The result of this research
was compatible with the findings of research scholars inside and outside the
country.
Key Terms
thoughtful
stories
research
community
social
skills
program
of teaching
philosophy
to children
***
Pathology of Attending to Children’s Rights in
Iran and the World
Masumeh
Mudawwar
The
violation of children’s rights in the developing countries are mostly rooted in
poverty, while in the West moral problems and feebleness of family foundations
are responsible for the rise of such problem. In spite of all these facts, the
West always put pressure on the third world countries for their violation of
children’s rights. Attending to children’s rights is not a matter of present
societies, but in Islam also it enjoys a particular place (respecting children,
banning people from any kind of violation, discrimination and misconduct
against children, and persuading them to do justice to children). This work
follows a qualitative approach, that is, avoiding any hypothesis making
approach but follows an analytic-descriptive method in order to find out a
response to the questions concerning the basis and weak points of children’s
rights in Iran and the World. At the end, following a qualitative analysis it
is concluded that keeping in view the particular situation of children, namely
their physical and spiritual situations; they should be taken under particular
protection and supervision. With respect to their weakness they should be
protected in a way to be able to achieve their rights and the elder also should
take this fact into account.
Key Terms
rights
child
human
rights
social
education
respect
discrimination
***
Teaching Children Curriculum from the
Perspective of
Neo-conceptualist
Philosophers
Saeed
Roomani
The present article aims at studying teaching children
curriculum from the perspective
of
neo-conceptualist philosophers and the method of
this work is deductive-analytic following which all relevant evidences have been
studied in order to respond to the questions posed in the work. With respect to
the questions of the work, the results are as follows: from the perspective of
neo-conceptualist philosophy, children are considered to be as the creators of
meanings. They are exactly members of a society, so it is necessary to take
into account their experiences, thoughts, feelings, dreams, their ways of
communication, valuations, and behaviors. Indeed, activities outside and inside
the schools should be compatible with each other. According to this school of
thought, knowledge enjoys various aspects and all aspects should be studied and
this process will bring in its wake new forms of knowledge. Of course,
this is possible through stressing on the destruction of certain boundaries and
creating new conditions. In the views of philosophers like Plato, Augustine,
and John Dewy we can see the importance of training children for bringing about
changes in a society.
Key Terms
curriculum
child
neo-conceptualist
philosophy