Lipman, Matthew Interview 13 November 2008
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Description
In this last interview of his life, given at the age of eighty-five, Matthew Lipman reflects on the development of philosophy for children. He revisits the formative period of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children was consolidating its curriculum and training practices. Central to the interview is Lipman’s meditation on Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery as a breakthrough text that demonstrated the possibility of cultivating philosophic thinking through narrative, even before its underlying principles could be fully articulated. He describes philosophy as a practice that is grasped through immersion rather than explicit instruction, employing vivid metaphors—most notably philosophy as a “passport” that enables intellectual travel across domains of experience and culture. Lipman also discusses subsequent novels (Lisa and Suki) as reiterations of a single project: helping readers come into a new relationship with language as it is elemental to logic, ethics, and aesthetics. Throughout, the interview illuminates Lipman’s enduring concern with how philosophic competence is recognized, fostered, and lived, even when its essential elements resist precise formulation.
Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Interview
Publisher
Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children
City
Montclair
Keywords
education, children, dialogue, Matthew Lipman, philosophy, philosophy for children
Disciplines
Education | Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Lipman, Matthew and Shea, Peter, "Lipman, Matthew Interview 13 November 2008" (2026). All IAPC Oral Histories. 15.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/iapc_oral_histories/15