What is Philosophy with Children and Communities?
Philosophy with Children grew out of the work of Matthew Lipman in the USA in the early 1970s. He developed a programme called Philosophy for Children (P4C). Since then, several approaches to doing practical philosophy have been developed. Philosophy with Children (PwC) is the general name for these approaches.
Practical philosophy is about talking with others about philosophical ideas in a philosophical way. We can discuss questions about a whole range of topics, for instance: time; language; identity; art; justice; truth; mind; morality; knowledge; religion; and science. The dialogues use everyday language to make them as accessible as possible.
Many of us in the PwCCNetwork are trained in Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI) as developed by Catherine McCall. CoPI is practised in a variety of places , for example, in schools, colleges, universities, libraries, science centres, churches, hospitals, prisons, pubs and museums. So it’s not just for children.
Who we are
The majority of us live and work in Scotland, but several of us live and work in other parts of the world. We work in educational, community, private and business settings. To find out more about us, click here.
Our work
To find out about our work, click on the relevant sections below. You can hire a facilitator from us too; for more information, contact us.
Adult Groups Early years Primary Schools Secondary Schools Non-school groups