Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.21860/j.11.2.9
Community of philosophical inquiry as a method in early bioethical education
Bruno Ćurko
orcid.org/0000-0002-5291-4897
; University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Teacher Education, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split
Abstract
‘Community of inquiry’ is a concept introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce, and was
originally restricted to the practitioners of scientific inquiry. M. Lipman (2003) expanded
this concept by moving it into a broader setting – the classroom. He converted the classroom
into a community of inquiry, in which “students listen to one another with respect, build
on one another’s ideas, challenge one another to supply reasons for otherwise unsupported
opinions, assist each other in drawing inferences from what has been said, and seek to
identify one another’s assumptions.” David Kennedy (2012) claimed how “Lipman, taking
a cue from his friend and mentor Justus Buchler, developed and called ‘community of
philosophical inquiry’— the most appropriate way to practice with students the philosophical
curriculum that he had developed. This idea is also a philosophical one, and it has a farreaching implication, both practical and theoretical – for learning theory, for theory of
teaching, for argumentation theory, for theory of knowledge, for group psychology, for
moral education, and perhaps, ultimately of the greatest importance, for grounded political
theory and practice.” In various and different approaches to philosophy with children, we
can find a community of philosophical inquiry as one of the main methods. For instance,
a community of philosophical inquiry is one of the methods used in Ethics and Values
Education: “The term ethics and values education (EVE) applies to all aspects of education
which either explicitly or implicitly relate to ethical dimensions of life and are such that can
be structured, regulated and monitored with appropriate educational methods and tools.”
(Strahovnik, 2015). Leaning on the cited definition of EVE, if we focus specifically on the
issues of the contemporary world with its ecological crisis and rapid digitalization, we can
set the relation of the ethical dimensions of life as a bioethical question. Using methodology
for the community of philosophical inquiry as a basis for bioethical questioning, we can
satisfy the need for innovative and effective bioethical education from an early age. In my
lecture, I will show how the community of philosophical inquiry can be connected with bioethical topics such as the relationship between man and wild animals, man and plants,
man and nature in global, etc.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
251860
URI
Publication date:
24.12.2020.
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