On Wednesday, Rosie Pattinson and I were proud to attend the book launch for Peter Worley’s excellent ‘The If Machine: Philosophical Enquiry in the Classroom’ at the Institute of Education. There was quite a turnout of various ages and levels of fame, with comedian and broadcaster Robin Ince; Philosopher of Education, Michael Hand; Editor of Philosophy Now, Rick Lewis and Editor of The Philosophers’ Magazine, Julian Baggini all in attendance – but it was the incredibly articulate children who had experienced Pete's philosophy sessions previously who stole the show.
Pete facilitated an enquiry from the book which left everyone scratching their heads and most of us using parts of our brains that felt underdeveloped, at best. But perhaps this is the point. Most children in the UK do not get to do any philosophy in their formal education – I certainly didn’t. A few lucky souls have the opportunity to study it at A level, or in the IB but it is a subject largely absent from lower secondary and primary education.
In the book, Pete explains with remarkable simplicity and clarity how children can be taught to identify necessary and sufficient conditions, to avoid circular definitions, to focus on falsifying rather than verifying general claims, and, above all, to ‘if’.
‘Iffing’ is Pete’s term for the technique of bracketing concerns about the truth of a claim in order to investigate its conceptual implications or entailments. And surely that is the greatest intellectual skill that any human being can learn in this age of information and opinion overload – to be discerning and to question the validity of everything they are told to take at face value. Learning to philosophise is precisely a matter of acquiring and practicing these techniques – something that few of us have ever done before.
Michael Hand referred to Pete’s first book as ‘The best book of its kind currently available … An invaluable resource for teachers wanting to try out some philosophy in their classrooms … A significant contribution to educational theory’. I would, of course, agree with these three endorsements, but would like to add one of my own. This is a book of inspirations – for teachers, children and anyone interested in the World and the power of the mind. It has certainly inspired me, and I hope that it will inspire many others in the months and years to come.
Peter Worley will be partaking in a roundtable on philosophy for children at the LSE on 23 June. Check back on the blog for further details later in the year.
Melanie Wilson
Commissioning Editor (Professional Education)
