Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery[1] is a philosophical novel for children written by Matthew Lipman. The novel was Lipman's first, and inaugurated the educational movement known as Philosophy for Children. It was first published in 1971 and revised in 1974.[2]

The book deals with everyday situations which a group of children encounter. These situations then become the substance for mental engagement and thinking about thinking. Rather than looking for answers, the type of thinking encouraged is about prolonging questioning, and performing self-initiated testing on the events or objects under discussion. There is a focus on how to teach ourselves logic by examining the results of the self-initiated tests. It opens with Harry, the school boy who leads the story, falling asleep in a science class, although "he didn't really fall asleep ... His mind just wandered off".[3] The narrative deals with substantial democratic issues such as "should every child go to school?", and "should every person salute the flag?", along with metaphysical and epistemological issues.[4][5][6] Louis Katzner notes that Lipman uses syllogistic rather than propositional logic.[4]

In the early 1970s it entered Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey.[7] Lipman subsequently published an instruction manual to accompany it.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lipman, Matthew. Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery (NJ: IAPC, 1974).
  2. ↑ Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery at WorldCat
  3. ↑ Lipman, M., Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery, Chapter 1, page 1, accessed 28 January 2023
  4. 1 2 Katzner, Louis I., "Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery: A Review" in Newsletter on the Teaching of Philosophy, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 51, No.6 (Aug., 1978), pp. 804-808
  5. ↑ Losito, William F., Review: Philosophical Inquiry in the Elementary School? Growing up with Philosophy by Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp (1979), in British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (June 1980), pp. 148-150
  6. ↑ Jordan, Shannon, Reviewed Work: Philosophy in the Classroom by Matthew Lipman, Ann Margaret Sharp and Frederick S. Oscanyan, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 51, No.2 (Nov., 1977), pp. 213-214
  7. ↑ Pritchard, Michael. Philosophy for Children entry in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  8. ↑ Lipman, Matthew. Philosophical Inquiry (Instructional Manual to Accompany Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery), with Ann Margaret Sharp (NJ: IAPC, 1975). Second Edition: Philosophical Inquiry, with Ann Margaret Sharp and Frederick S. Oscanyan (NJ: IAPC, 1979), co-published with University Press, 1984.


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