International Conference of Philosophy for Children 2018
"Pluralism and Interdisciplinary Perspectives - Philosophical Investigations in a Rapidly Changing World"
from 15 - 18 November 2018 in Graz/Austria
The aim of the congress is to reflect on and analyse the increasingly complex processes of our time. It sees itself as an invitation to philosophy to take up the challenges and rethink the interrelationships between science and technology on the one hand and social and democratic principles on the other.
Two central dimensions form the focus of the congress: Firstly, recognising and changing life-determining boundaries in relation to science and technology. Multi-perspectivity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are increasingly in demand. What new and innovative approaches have been established in recent years from an interdisciplinary perspective and approach? Is a new scientific culture emerging as more and more people have access to more and more knowledge? What is meant by the terms "multi-perspectivity" and "inter-, multi- and transdisciplinarity"?
The second dimension of the congress concerns the rapid changes in dominant social processes in pluralistic democracies, which require philosophical sensitivity. Here, too, numerous questions need to be clarified: What does pluralism mean? How do we deal with heterogeneity? What opportunities and challenges arise from migration movements? What opportunities does demographic change offer and what problems will we be confronted with? What does this mean for the practice of living together? How is the relationship between the individual and the collective changing? How can basic democratic principles be strengthened on the basis of human rights?
This congress will focus on the connection between these two dimensions, and the attempt to bring them closer together can substantially promote the potential for scientific-technological and social freedoms. Ultimately, this means that scientific-technological and ethical-social principles can represent a complex unity. At the same time, it is a matter of sounding out the possibilities of philosophy to support society in these processes of change. Philosophy must therefore go out into the public, into schools and educational institutions. In particular, "philosophising with children and young people" can be seen as an essential impulse for a new positive focus in our educational intentions.
This year's congress is planned as an inter/transcultural forum to enable philosophical discussions of current phenomena and to build bridges to other scientific disciplines. An important aim of this event is to initiate an exchange of different approaches and thus make further knowledge bases explicit for both educational concepts and educational policy initiatives.
The topics of the congress will focus on the following areas: