The critical role of philosophy in intellectual development of children in Matthew Lipman

This study examines the critical role of philosophy in intellectual development of children in the context of Matthew Lipman. Lipman's realization that the students he encountered at university had poor reasoning skills and his belief that the source of this problem went back to childhood and stemmed from a lack of philosophical thinking led to the emergence of a new understanding. According to him, the inability of adults to use their intellectual faculties sufficiently can be overcome by philosophical education given at an early age. But in the education system, children are introduced to philosophy education too late. This situation creates problems in achieving the goals of philosophy education. Lipman states that the childhood period is important for the solution of this problem and that it is necessary to philosophize with children at an early age. Individuals who do not receive philosophy education at an early age have difficulty in developing critical thinking skills and strengthening their analytical attitudes towards complex problems. Based on these problems, he created the Philosophy for Children program and implemented it himself. Thanks to the program, young children were introduced to philosophy and some changes occurred in children at the end of the program. Lipman observed that children's critical, questioning, attentive and multidimensional thinking as well as their communication skills and ethical attitudes improved. As a result of Lipman's research, it was observed that the child's innate sense of curiosity and creativity became more conscious and permanent with the help of philosophy. Philosophy education, which supports children's cognitive, emotional and social development and develops their critical thinking skills, has transformed the classroom environment into a community of inquiry. From traditional education, where knowledge is passively memorized, to contemporary education where students actively participate and critical thinking and questioning are encouraged. Therefore, according to Lipman, in order to create conscious, analytical and critical thinking societies, philosophy courses should be introduced into the education system from an early age. In this study, using the document analysis method, many of Lipman's works, especially his masterpiece "Philosophy in the Classroom", were analyzed and his philosophy design for children was revealed.