la filosofía con niños como experiencia transformadora. una propuesta en organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro

The benefits of implementing the methodology of Philosophy for/with Children are clear. Nevertheless, an excessive emphasis on critical thinking skills weakness its application in groups at risk of social exclusion. These groups require a profound transformation and not just a better way of thinking. This is due to the cognitive dissonance provoked when one only works with discourse: session participants can learn to give good answers without becoming able to apply them outside of philosophical settings. One way to address this limitation is to design an experiential reason, something described, in part, by Mathew Lipman (2003, pp. 261-270). If life experience determines children’s identity construction (Romano, 2012; Nishida, 1995; Zambrano, 1995), it is crucial to investigate its meaning and how it is articulated. Therefore, an Experiential Philosophy with Children, the topic of this paper, does not focus exclusively on the discursive work rooted in critical thinking. Rather, it is based on three pillars: (1) the creation of experiential exercises, (2) the promotion of provisions that encourage the transformative capacity of these exercises, and (3) the design of experiential scenarios and metaphors that promote the attainment of transformative truths. This article describes the limitations of the cognitive approach of philosophical work with children, summarizes the bases of experientiality, and adds a brief appendix on the work done at the University of Seville in non-profit associations like the Maparra Project of Caritas.