International Conference of Philosophy for Children 2023

16-18 November 2023, Karl-Franzens-University
Meerscheinschlössl, Mozartgasse 3, 8010 Graz/ Austria

Our society is in a constant state of change. We are experiencing rapid upheavals when it comes to the new composition of society, artificial intelligence (AI), the future of education, political decisions or "unforeseeable" catastrophes, changes of an increasingly large scale. We are currently confronted primarily with change resulting from the consequences of armed conflicts - warlike excesses that have diminished hopes for a new peaceful world.

Unchecked climate change has immediate consequences and the catastrophic effects will continue to intensify over time. Above all, existing inequalities between people are widening, jeopardising social cohesion for current and future generations.

Pandemics, wars, energy shortages, crises of democracy and inflation: events are coming thick and fast and there is a concentration of different crises, which often reveal what is not working.

What crises mean for people has always preoccupied thinkers. New attitudes, political decisions or unforeseeable disasters are often triggers for change. Change can be the engine of progress, crises literally force societies to take new paths.

The classical Enlightenment ideal of ancient origin, which since Plato and Socrates has regarded virtue and rationality as intertwined, needs to be reinterpreted and the necessary tools of philosophical and rational argumentation skills made tangible in an empirically adequate and practical way. The task of philosophy is therefore to make connections argumentatively and linguistically comprehensible and to visualise possible solutions in the philosophical process of "bringing forth".

The beginning of the 21st century shows how a transformative change is taking place in the internal-external relationship between individuals and societies. Condensations and disseminations of contemporary societies are developing cumulative processes of organisation and want to be dependent and independent at the same time - natural identities and socio-political identities are in limbo.

The increase in complexity simultaneously leads to increased certainties and uncertainties, couplings and decouplings, which thus make rational change possible due to the underlying democratisation and enlightenment movement. A philosophical-rational and scientific-rational reflection on the increasingly complex relationships is therefore more urgent than ever before. In essence, it is about an epistemological-ethical shaping of renewed forms of rationality in the sense of coping with the future, about a better analytical and empirical penetration.

In-depth philosophical analyses and reflections are necessary in order to work out possibilities and opportunities to formulate the image of man in flux in a reflective and action-relevant way. It is about the viable correlations between the individual images of people and their society, in particular with regard to a "new self-image" and "understanding of the other" and about the "new" conditions under which "integration and inclusion" with "degeneration and exclusion" and, at higher levels of meaningfulness, "provision and securing one's livelihood" represent specific processes.

How well can philosophy grasp the present? What approaches are there that give hope? How can transformation in education succeed along fundamental values such as freedom, justice and equality? What are the prerequisites for the realisation of sustainable educational work for all? What possibilities does philosophy offer to support society in these processes of change?

Philosophising with children and young people can be seen as an essential impulse for a new positive focus on sustainable educational intentions, as it contributes to the promotion of perception, interpretation, argumentation and dialogue skills as well as critical reflection and judgement and, due to its "enlightenment-oriented" self-image, can mediate between science and the living world and strengthen reflective potential.

The congress is planned as an inter- and transcultural forum in order to facilitate philosophical debates on current phenomena and to link up with other scientific disciplines and to promote mutual exchange and present new approaches in order to provide knowledge bases and food for thought for concept developments in the field of education and philosophy.

The congress will focus on the following topics:

• Knowledge and humanity
• Human rights and democracy
• Individuals and society in transformative change
• Certainty and uncertainty
• Community of Inquiry (research community)
• New forms of rationality
• Digital change and ethics
• Connections between communication and ways of life
• Inter- and transdisciplinarity - multiculturalism
• Philosophical perspectives and education
• Self-organisation
• Peace as a philosophical challenge

You can find the conference programme here.

Further information on the post-conference workshop can be found here.

Registration and information:
Institute for Philosophy of Children and Youth
Tel.: +43 (0)316 90370201
E-Mail: kinderphilosophie(at)aon.at
E-Mail: office@kinderphilosophie.at
Homepage: www.kinderphilosphie.at
https://kinderphilosophie-gesellschaft.uni-graz.at/de/