ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to introduce two of Matthews’ most striking innovations: his analysis of transcripts of children’s dialogue to demonstrate their philosophical thinking and his creation of story beginnings, which he discussed with children and then concluded, based on their insights and arguments. It also aims to identify several ways Matthews found that children think philosophically and focus on their ability to generate fresh insights of value to adult professional philosophers. The chapter argues that, while Matthews is surely correct that intergenerational dialogue is a significant gift of the philosophy for children movement, philosophers need to think harder and better about how to involve diverse others in a discipline that has long focused on exclusivity. Matthews further critiqued the unitarian thesis in asserting that: Children have not yet learned to reject as queer and misbegotten those many questions that philosophers have taught themselves to rescue from the waste bin of inquiry.
