ABSTRACT
Philosophy for Children (P4C) built upon the recommendations of John Dewey and the Russian educator Lev Vygotsky, who emphasized the necessity of teaching for thinking, not just for memorizing. P4C is a world-class educational program with relatively low maintenance costs. Since Philosophy for Children is largely a language-based program, its success is related closely to its being accurately developed through a large number of languages. Philosophy with children has grown up as a small offshoot of Philosophy for Children, in the sense that philosophy with children utilizes discussion of philosophical ideas, but not through specially written children’s stories. Children need to discover criteria for distinguishing between valid and invalid reasoning, between supported and unsupported theories of knowledge, and between acceptable and unacceptable forms of moral judgment etc. Any child that is capable of using language intelligibly is capable of schooling and growth, and is therefore capable of the kind of discourse and conversation that philosophy involves.
