Papers by Laura D'Olimpio
Think
ABSTRACTAs our technology rapidly advances, designer babies and other bioethical issues are fast ... more ABSTRACTAs our technology rapidly advances, designer babies and other bioethical issues are fast becoming possible. Instead of solely being considered in economic terms, or in terms of accuracy and desirability, ethical questions should also be asked such as ‘is this a good thing to do?’. This article considers whether moral people would ‘design’ and genetically engineer their babies and applies the moral theories of virtue ethics, deontology and utilitarianism to help guide our ethical decision-making in relation to this complex issue. Even if we can do something, we should pause and consider whether or not we should.
Journal of Philosophy in Schools
Philosophy in Schools: An introduction for philosophers and teachers edited by Sara Goering, Nich... more Philosophy in Schools: An introduction for philosophers and teachers edited by Sara Goering, Nicholas J Shudak and Thomas E Wartenberg (2013). (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy) Taylor & Francis, New York, NY. ISBN: 9780415640633. The edited collection Philosophy in Schools: An introduction for philosophers and teachers is exactly that; an introduction to the central ideas of the Philosophy in Schools movement, with tips and strategies as to how to implement Philosophy for Children (P4C) in your classroom or educational space. With 25 chapters, this handy edition includes the writings of 31 academics and well known practitioners of P4C worldwide. While all the voices contributing to this volume are positive and optimistic as they exalt the benefits of P4C, the diversity comes in the form of the various ways in which the numerous authors have practiced philosophy with participants of different ages, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. There is a mix of theory and ped...
Journal of Philosophy in Schools
Splitter commences this book by telling the reader that it was a pedagogical incident that led hi... more Splitter commences this book by telling the reader that it was a pedagogical incident that led him to write it. Presenting a philosophical seminar series on the topic of ‘identity’ to bright undergraduate students in America from a range of disciplines heightened his realisation that we don’t all use the word in the same way to refer to the same thing. We wouldn’t normally think too much about it, assuming that identity, especially one’s own, is an obvious, assumed entity. However, it is not, really, the closer you examine the concept. Which is precisely what Splitter goes on to do.
Journal of Philosophy in Schools
This article details Cultural DeCoding, a humanities based high school extension program for gift... more This article details Cultural DeCoding, a humanities based high school extension program for gifted and talented Year 11 and 12 students in Western Australia. The brainchild of Dr Annette Pedersen (UWA & John XXIII College) and Dr Angela McCarthy (UNDA), the program runs for four days across the summer holidays before the start of the school term. The program fills a gap that exists in the education of gifted and talented secondary students who are interested in the humanities. It is comprised of sessions run by academics who facilitate discussion and activities based on their area of research and teaching expertise. The group is deliberately kept small in order to give students a chance to engage deeply and respectfully with like-minded others. The intention is to give these students an experience of what university will be like, and to have a chance to think philosophically; namely, critically, creatively and morally, in collaboration with others.
Journal of Philosophy in Schools
While some may argue that universities are in a state of crisis, others claim that we are living ... more While some may argue that universities are in a state of crisis, others claim that we are living in a post-university era; a time after universities. If there was a battle for the survival of the institution, it is over and done with. The buildings still stand. Students enrol and may (at times) attend lectures, though let’s be clear—most do not. But virtually nothing real remains. What some mistakenly take to be a university is, in actuality, an ‘uncanny’ spectral presence; ‘the nagging presence of an absence … a “spectralized amnesiac modernity with its delusional totalizing systems”’ (Maddern & Adey 2008, p. 292). It is the remains and remnants of the university.[1]Overstatement? Perhaps. We think many if not most administrators, at all levels, will likely dissent. So too will many if not most teachers and students. Trying to determine whether this is correct, or to what extent, by consulting polls and reading opinion pieces in various education journals and professional papers (e...
Postdigital Science and Education
This article is a multi-authored response to an editorial ‵Postdigital Science and Educa-tion′ pu... more This article is a multi-authored response to an editorial ‵Postdigital Science and Educa-tion′ published in 2018 by Petar Jandrić, Jeremy Knox, Tina Besley, Thomas Ryberg, Juha Suoranta and Sarah Hayes in Educational Philosophy and Theory as a mission statement for the journal Postdigital Science and Education. Nineteen authors were invited to produce their sections, followed by two author-reviewers who examined the article as a whole. Authors' responses signal the sense of urgency for developing the concept of the postdigital and caution about attempts at simplifying complex relationships between human beings and technology. Whilst the digital indeed seems to become invisible, we simultaneously need to beware of its apparent absence and to avoid overemphasizing its effects. In this attempt, authors offer a wide range of signposts for future research such as 'the critical postdigital' and 'postdigital reflexivity'; they also warn about the group's own shortcomings such as the lack of 'real' sense of collectivity. They emphasize that postdigital education must remain a common good, discuss its various negative aspects such as smartphone addiction and nomophobia, and exhibit some positive examples of postdigital educational praxis. They discuss various aspects of postdigital identities and point towards the need for a postdigital identity theory. With these varied and nuanced responses, the article opens a wide spectrum of opportunity for the development of postdigital approaches to science and education for the future.
Media and Moral Education
The Affect of good artworks can be difficult to explain or describe, particularly in relation to ... more The Affect of good artworks can be difficult to explain or describe, particularly in relation to conceptual art. The experiential process of engaging with an artwork involves the spectator perceiving the physical art object as well as receiving a concept. For an aesthetic experience to result, or for the viewer to be affected, the artist must be skilled and the receiver must adopt the relevant attitude. Many theorists argue that the correct attitude to adopt is one that is objective and ‘disinterested’. I argue that a ‘loving’ attitude, in the Iris Murdoch / Martha Nussbaum sense derived from an ethics of care / virtue ethics framework is also appropriate when engaging with art in order to achieve an aesthetic affect. This open, caring attitude requires the receiver to be receptive to the concepts contained within the work as well as its formal features. If the concepts implored are ethical or social, a disinterested attitude may impede the appropriate up-take of intended affect. I will argue that Affect has a cognitive as well as an emotive component.
Empirical evidence advancing the theory of anthropogenic climate change and resultant policy acti... more Empirical evidence advancing the theory of anthropogenic climate change and resultant policy action has been framed through the perspectives of scientists, economists and politicians; the ultimate objective being to minimise the risk of dangerous climate ...
theatroedu.gr
Philosophy for Children is a theoretical and practical model that paves the way for creative and ... more Philosophy for Children is a theoretical and practical model that paves the way for creative and fun learning that helps the moral and social development of children by encouraging critical thinking. The paper demonstrates that, through linking philosophy with arts-based ...
You want to prepare your child to think as he gets older. You want him to be critical in his judg... more You want to prepare your child to think as he gets older. You want him to be critical in his judgments. Teaching a child, by your example, that there's never any room for negotiating or making choices in life may suggest that you expect blind obedience-but it won't help him in the long run to be discriminating in choices and thinking. Abstract This article details Cultural DeCoding, a humanities based high school extension program for gifted and talented Year 11 and 12 students in Western Australia. The brainchild of Dr Annette Pedersen (UWA & John XXIII College) and Dr Angela McCarthy (UNDA), the program runs for four days across the summer holidays before the start of the school term. The program fills a gap that exists in the education of gifted and talented secondary students who are interested in the humanities. It is comprised of sessions run by academics who facilitate discussion and activities based on their area of research and teaching expertise. The group is delib...
Journal of Philosophy in Schools , 2018
D’Olimpio, L. & Peterson, A. (2018) ‘The Ethics of Narrative Art: philosophy in schools, compassi... more D’Olimpio, L. & Peterson, A. (2018) ‘The Ethics of Narrative Art: philosophy in schools, compassion and learning from stories’ Journal of Philosophy in Schools 5(1), pp. 92-110.
Following neo-Aristotelians Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum, we claim that humans are story-telling animals who learn from the stories of diverse others. Moral agents use rational emotions, such as compassion which is our focus here, to imaginatively reconstruct others’ thoughts, feelings and goals. In turn, this imaginative reconstruction plays a crucial role in deliberating and discerning how to act. A body of literature has developed in support of the role narrative artworks (i.e. novels and films) can play in allowing us the opportunity to engage imaginatively and sympathetically with diverse characters and scenarios in a safe protected space that is created by the fictional world. By practising what Nussbaum calls a ‘loving attitude’, her version of ethical attention, we can form virtuous habits that lead to phronesis (practical wisdom). In this paper, and taking compassion as an illustrative focus, we examine the ways that students’ moral education might usefully develop from engaging with narrative artworks through Philosophy for Children (P4C), where philosophy is a praxis, conducted in a classroom setting using a Community of Inquiry (CoI). We argue that narrative artworks provide useful stimulus material to engage students, generate student questions, and motivate philosophical dialogue and the formation of good habits which, in turn, supports the argument for philosophy to be taught in schools.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2016
As social and political beings, we are able to flourish only if we collaborate with others. Trust... more As social and political beings, we are able to flourish only if we collaborate with others. Trust, understood as a virtue, incorporates appropriate rational emotional dispositions such as compassion as well as action that is contextual, situated in a time and place. We judge responses as appropriate and characters as trustworthy or untrustworthy based on these factors (namely, context, intention, action as well as consequence). To be considered worthy of trust, as an individual or an institution, one must do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons, and the action should have its intended effect. By focussing on character, including a moral agent’s emotional disposition, virtue ethicists offer a more holistic account of trust than that explained by a deontic adherence to one’s duty as governed by a social contract. I will apply this understanding to educational institutions, particularly primary and secondary schools that serve a vital role in society. One of the main roles schools perform is to assist in character formation so that students, through practice, learn to be trusting and trusted citizens of society. I offer the philosophy in schools methodology of the community of inquiry (CoI) as one example of how such practice may be facilitated in the classroom.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2014
There is a traditional debate in analytic aesthetics that surrounds the classification of film as... more There is a traditional debate in analytic aesthetics that surrounds the classification of film as Art. While much philosophy devoted to considering film has now moved beyond this debate and accepts film as a mass art, a sub-category of Art proper, it is worth re-considering the criticism of film pre-Deleuze. Much of the criticism of film as pseudo-art is expressed in moral terms. T. W. Adorno, for example, critiques film as ‘mass-cult’; mass produced culture which presents a ‘flattened’ version of reality. Adorno worries about the passivity encouraged in viewers. Films are narrative artworks, received by an audience in a context, making the focus on the reception of the work important. The dialogue held between Adorno and Walter Benjamin post-WWII is interesting because, between them, they consider both the possible positive emancipatory and negative politicization effects of film as a mass produced and distributed story-telling medium. Reading Adorno alongside Benjamin is a way to highlight the role of the critical thinker who receives the film. Arguing that the critical thinker is a valuable citizen, this paper focuses on the value of critical thinking in the reception of cinematic artworks. It achieves this by reconsidering Adorno and Benjamin's theories of mass art.
In Australia, the ethics of the use of animals for scientific purposes are assessed by Animal Eth... more In Australia, the ethics of the use of animals for scientific purposes are assessed by Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) that are comprised of the four major parties involved in the animal experimentation debate: veterinarians, scientists using animals, animal welfare representatives and members of the public. AECs are required to assess animal experiments as ethical based on a cost/benefit analysis, suggesting
Ethical debate about the use of animals in science is argued within different ethical frameworks;... more Ethical debate about the use of animals in science is argued within different ethical frameworks; mainly utilitarianism, deontology, relativism or emotional ethics, with some debaters preferring particular frameworks. Stakeholders to the debate are veterinarians, scientists using animals, animal welfare groups and the general public. To estimate the balance of ethical frameworks used, we ran a discourse analysis of written texts
It can hardly be denied that play is an important tool for the development and socialisation of c... more It can hardly be denied that play is an important tool for the development and socialisation of children. In this article we argue that through dramaturgical play in combination with pedagogical tools such as the Community of Inquiry (CoI), in the tradition of Philosophy for Children (P4C), students can creatively think, reflect and be more aware of the impact their gestures have on others. One of the most fundamental aspects of the embodied human life is human interaction that is based on expressions, what Schmid calls gestures. Through self-reflection, one’s set of gestures can be developed into a deliberate ‘life-performance’ – a conscious, selected and coherent work of art. Drawing on Nietzsche’s idea of living artistically, we explore how Schmid’s philosophy of the art of living, P4C and the liberal arts, with a focus on drama education, can work together to help children develop their own art of living while respecting and supporting the development of the good and beautiful life of others.
Books by Laura D'Olimpio
Education and the Arts: inspiring wonder, 2020
My chapter, ‘Education and the Arts: inspiring wonder’, in ed. A. Schinkel, Wonder, education and... more My chapter, ‘Education and the Arts: inspiring wonder’, in ed. A. Schinkel, Wonder, education and human flourishing. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit University Press, pp 256-270.
Anders Schinkel (2017; 2018) defends the role of deep wonder as an antidote to the instrumentalising effects of a neoliberal approach to education. Yet how to educate for wonder when wonder often seems to be elusive; arising anywhere at any time yet seemingly difficult to grasp when aimed for directly? In this chapter, I will further build on Schinkel’s ideas and defend the arts as an important vehicle for prompting the experience of wonder. The arts are likely to give rise to a sense of wonder due to the way in which they present concepts, images and ideas in new and creative ways. Such artistic depiction encourages those engaging with artworks to adopt a certain way of seeing; a mode of perception that is open and receptive and thus likely to result in feelings of wonder. I claim that creating space for the arts on the school curriculum will provide opportunities for wonder in educational settings.
Media and Moral Education demonstrates that the study of philosophy can be used to enhance critic... more Media and Moral Education demonstrates that the study of philosophy can be used to enhance critical thinking skills, which are sorely needed in today’s technological age. It addresses the current oversight of the educational environment not keeping pace with rapid advances in technology, despite the fact that educating students to engage critically and compassionately with others via online media is of the utmost importance.
D’Olimpio claims that philosophical thinking skills support the adoption of an attitude she calls critical perspectivism, which she applies in the book to international multimedia examples. The author also suggests that the Community of Inquiry – a pedagogy practised by advocates of Philosophy for Children – creates a space in which participants can practise being critically perspectival, and can be conducted with all age levels in a classroom or public setting, making it beneficial in shaping democratic and discerning citizens.
This book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, critical theory and communication, film and media studies.
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Papers by Laura D'Olimpio
Following neo-Aristotelians Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum, we claim that humans are story-telling animals who learn from the stories of diverse others. Moral agents use rational emotions, such as compassion which is our focus here, to imaginatively reconstruct others’ thoughts, feelings and goals. In turn, this imaginative reconstruction plays a crucial role in deliberating and discerning how to act. A body of literature has developed in support of the role narrative artworks (i.e. novels and films) can play in allowing us the opportunity to engage imaginatively and sympathetically with diverse characters and scenarios in a safe protected space that is created by the fictional world. By practising what Nussbaum calls a ‘loving attitude’, her version of ethical attention, we can form virtuous habits that lead to phronesis (practical wisdom). In this paper, and taking compassion as an illustrative focus, we examine the ways that students’ moral education might usefully develop from engaging with narrative artworks through Philosophy for Children (P4C), where philosophy is a praxis, conducted in a classroom setting using a Community of Inquiry (CoI). We argue that narrative artworks provide useful stimulus material to engage students, generate student questions, and motivate philosophical dialogue and the formation of good habits which, in turn, supports the argument for philosophy to be taught in schools.
Books by Laura D'Olimpio
Anders Schinkel (2017; 2018) defends the role of deep wonder as an antidote to the instrumentalising effects of a neoliberal approach to education. Yet how to educate for wonder when wonder often seems to be elusive; arising anywhere at any time yet seemingly difficult to grasp when aimed for directly? In this chapter, I will further build on Schinkel’s ideas and defend the arts as an important vehicle for prompting the experience of wonder. The arts are likely to give rise to a sense of wonder due to the way in which they present concepts, images and ideas in new and creative ways. Such artistic depiction encourages those engaging with artworks to adopt a certain way of seeing; a mode of perception that is open and receptive and thus likely to result in feelings of wonder. I claim that creating space for the arts on the school curriculum will provide opportunities for wonder in educational settings.
D’Olimpio claims that philosophical thinking skills support the adoption of an attitude she calls critical perspectivism, which she applies in the book to international multimedia examples. The author also suggests that the Community of Inquiry – a pedagogy practised by advocates of Philosophy for Children – creates a space in which participants can practise being critically perspectival, and can be conducted with all age levels in a classroom or public setting, making it beneficial in shaping democratic and discerning citizens.
This book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, critical theory and communication, film and media studies.
Following neo-Aristotelians Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum, we claim that humans are story-telling animals who learn from the stories of diverse others. Moral agents use rational emotions, such as compassion which is our focus here, to imaginatively reconstruct others’ thoughts, feelings and goals. In turn, this imaginative reconstruction plays a crucial role in deliberating and discerning how to act. A body of literature has developed in support of the role narrative artworks (i.e. novels and films) can play in allowing us the opportunity to engage imaginatively and sympathetically with diverse characters and scenarios in a safe protected space that is created by the fictional world. By practising what Nussbaum calls a ‘loving attitude’, her version of ethical attention, we can form virtuous habits that lead to phronesis (practical wisdom). In this paper, and taking compassion as an illustrative focus, we examine the ways that students’ moral education might usefully develop from engaging with narrative artworks through Philosophy for Children (P4C), where philosophy is a praxis, conducted in a classroom setting using a Community of Inquiry (CoI). We argue that narrative artworks provide useful stimulus material to engage students, generate student questions, and motivate philosophical dialogue and the formation of good habits which, in turn, supports the argument for philosophy to be taught in schools.
Anders Schinkel (2017; 2018) defends the role of deep wonder as an antidote to the instrumentalising effects of a neoliberal approach to education. Yet how to educate for wonder when wonder often seems to be elusive; arising anywhere at any time yet seemingly difficult to grasp when aimed for directly? In this chapter, I will further build on Schinkel’s ideas and defend the arts as an important vehicle for prompting the experience of wonder. The arts are likely to give rise to a sense of wonder due to the way in which they present concepts, images and ideas in new and creative ways. Such artistic depiction encourages those engaging with artworks to adopt a certain way of seeing; a mode of perception that is open and receptive and thus likely to result in feelings of wonder. I claim that creating space for the arts on the school curriculum will provide opportunities for wonder in educational settings.
D’Olimpio claims that philosophical thinking skills support the adoption of an attitude she calls critical perspectivism, which she applies in the book to international multimedia examples. The author also suggests that the Community of Inquiry – a pedagogy practised by advocates of Philosophy for Children – creates a space in which participants can practise being critically perspectival, and can be conducted with all age levels in a classroom or public setting, making it beneficial in shaping democratic and discerning citizens.
This book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, critical theory and communication, film and media studies.