International Conference of Philosophy for Children 2021

14-17 October 2021, Karl-Franzens-University
Meerscheinschlössl, Mozartgasse 3, 8010 Graz/ Austria

The fundamental questions of democracies play a central role in our everyday lives. New expectations of democracy, as well as digitalisation and the effects of global ecological problems, present education systems with new challenges that are becoming increasingly evident and urgent.
The conference therefore raises the question of how the conceptual levels of democracy, digitalisation and ecology can be linked. Children and young people in particular recognise that individual autonomy, climate justice, equal opportunities, social justice, solidarity and cohesion are essential categories for them to understand their own actions in terms of their possibilities and limitations. In modern, democratic societies in particular, it is becoming clear that expectations in the age of digitalisation and ecology are generating or building up new social realities that expect and reveal enormously higher demands on current efforts to develop new, expanded concepts. In some cases, a reversal of traditional concepts of responsibility can be observed, as young people are taking responsibility for the future (see Greta Thunberg), while institutions, politics and education systems are only reacting very slowly.
These processes of a new kind of coupling between globalisation, localisation and individualism lead to new possibilities to bring mental and social as well as economic, digital and ecological processes into new contexts. All this means that the search for deeper connections between decisions and various forms of feedback (feedback loops) through to real circumstances is becoming more important. This should also offer the opportunity to clarify the contours of a new - possibly digitally supported - humanism or make it more explicit.
What is needed are ideas and concepts that contribute to making life and the survival of people and their environment worthy. In the tension between the greatest possible freedom of the individual and the necessary responsibility for the whole.
This year's congress is once again planned as an inter/transcultural forum in order to enable philosophical discussions of current phenomena and to build a bridge 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:

• Democracy in digital times

• Relationship between humans and nature

• Justice in the age of digitalisation and ecology

• Culture of responsibility - responsibility for future generations

• Relationships between reality and virtuality

• Human rights and pluralistic democracy

• Community of Inquiry (research community)

• Freedom and self-determination

• Language and power

• Philosophy and digitalisation and ecology

• Connections between communication and ways of life

• Philosophical perspectives and educational processes

• Global awareness