The Reconstruction of the Philosophy of Childhood from the Perspective of Listening

GAO Zhenyu

Associate Professor,

Institute of Philosophy for Children,

School of Education，Hangzhou Normal University,China

Abstract: Traditional western philosophy is a vision-centered philosophy treating seeing or looking as the primary way of obtaining knowledge. Informed by such tradition, the philosophy of childhood regards children as the observed or monitored objects, and forces children to adapt themselves to the requirements of adult cultures and their societies. My presentation tries to reconstruct the future image for the philosophy of childhood, by reviving the listening tradition of Chinese philosophy and succeeding to the continual efforts of establishing listening philosophy in the West since early modern times. It includes three parts: first, I attempt to deconstruct the “visual metaphor” of traditional western philosophy, demonstrate the transformation of itself to listening , explore the past theories on the philosophy of childhood and finally discuss the necessities of turning to listening. In the second part, I will etymologically analyze the concept of listening from both the western and eastern cultural contexts, discloses the complex meanings of listening and points out its possible categories. Lastly, a practical framework for rebuilding the listening relationship with children is suggested, with the introduction of some effective approaches and strategies.

Key Terms: Philosophy of Childhood, Listening Philosophy, Child Studies, Mosaic Approach