Childhood and the philosophy of education : an anti-Aristotelian perspective / Andrew Stables.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stables, Andrew, 1956-

Series:

Continuum studies in education

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aristotle.

Education--Philosophy.

Education.

Children and philosophy.

Physical Description:

vi, 203 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum International Pub., [2008]

Summary:

Philosophical accounts of childhood have tended to derive from Plato and Aristotle, who portrayed children as unreasonable and incomplete in terms of lacking formal and final causes and ends. Despite much rhetoric concerning either the sinfulness or purity of children (as in Puritanism and Romanticism respectively), the assumption that children are marginal has endured. Modern theories, including recent interpretations of neuroscience, have re-enforced this sense of children's incompleteness.

This fascinating monograph seeks to overturn this philosophical tradition. It develops instead a 'fully semiotic' perspective, arguing that in so far as children are no more or less interpreters of the world than adults, they are no more or less reasoning agents. This has radical implications, particularly for the question of how we seek to educate children. The study will examine critically the bases for the beliefs that more and more compulsory education is necessarily a social good, and that childhood must be grown out of and left behind.

Contents:

Introduction: The Conception of Childhood 1

Part 1 The Aristotelian Heritage

Chapter 1.1 How Anti-Aristotelian Can One Be? 7

Chapter 1.2 Aristotle's Debt to Plato 21

Chapter 1.3 Aristotle: Children as People in Formation 30

Chapter 1.4 Histories of Childhood: Footnotes to Aristotle? 40

Chapter 1.5 Pessimism and Sin: The Puritan Child 51

Chapter 1.6 Optimism and Enlightenment: The Liberal Child 56

Chapter 1.7 Trailing Clouds of Glory: The Romantic Child 67

Chapter 1.8 The Postmodern Child: Less Than Not Much? 76

Part 2 A Fully Semiotic View of Childhood

Chapter 2.1 Living as Semiotic Engagement 87

Chapter 2.2 The Meaning-Making, Semiotic Child 99

Chapter 2.3 Learning and Schooling: Dewey and Beyond 109

Part 3 Education Reconsidered

Chapter 3.1 The Roots of Compulsory Schooling 125

Chapter 3.2 The Extension of the In-Between Years 136

Chapter 3.3 Teaching for Significant Events: Identity and Non-Identity 148

Part 4 The Child in Society

Chapter 4.1 The Child and the Law 159

Chapter 4.2 Semiosis and Social Policy 165

Chapter 4.3 Doing Children Justice 177.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [194]-200) and index.

ISBN:

0826499724

9780826499721

OCLC:

226966499