An investigation into the philosophy for children program (p4c) with a view toward the differential attention paid to the different dimensions of philosophical mentality

One of the fundamental aims of any educational system is to educate well-informed, and enlightened people, those who base their thoughts on valid reasoning and logic and who using comprehensive and profound thinking in their encounters with the outside world, consider life’s problems from different perspectives and exhibit flexibility; in other words, educating people with philosophical mentality. To meet this goal, it seems necessary that curricula should focus on philosophical thinking and develop the power of thinking and reasoning in the students. In this connection, one of the programs designed in recent decades to develop philosophical thinking and promote “philosophizing” on the part of children is that of philosophy for children program (p4c). The aim of study was to investigate the theoretical foundations of (p4c). The research approach of the study was descriptive-analytic. The findings of the study indicate that although in this program vast attention has been paid to the different dimensions of the philosophical mentality, with regard to the degrees of the attention paid by this program to the individual dimensions of philosophical mentality certain disproportionalities are observed. That is, while certain elements of the philosophical mentality, such as questioning the obvious matters, evaluating ideas detached from their sources and relating affairs to long-term goals, have received more attention than others