REFRAMING AND PRACTICING COMMUNITY INCLUSION: THE RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN

Abstract

My contribution begins with a reflection on the word "post-secular". This is one of the topics debated by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in Munich in 2004. Habermas and Ratzinger agree that "post-secular" indicates a dimension of social and cultural life in which an effort is made by both secular and religious language to reciprocally translate their claims and to seek reciprocal understanding. Moreover they somehow agree that "post-secular" highlights the effort to understand what others say in their own languages even when unable to translate it as they should. In addition, especially Habermas points out a specific oddity of the post-secular society (along with its complexity and uneasiness): although the constitution of the liberal state can satisfy its own need for legitimacy in a self-sufficient manner – that is, on the basis of the cognitive elements of a stock of arguments that are independent of religious and metaphysical traditions –, the latter however seem to play a relevant role in motivating citizens in their role as "democratic (co-)legislators". These reflections give me the possibility to enquire into the present day post-secular and intercultural public spheres. The thesis I endeavor to support is that the achievement of inclusive public spheres (namely, with respect to our European and Western experience, the accomplishment of democracy) largely depends on one's willingness and capacity to foster the appreciation of diversities by first, enhancing policies and forms of cooperation between the citizens' emotional and motivational resources, and then enhancing their cognitive competences. More specifically, my proposal is to understand such an effort from the viewpoint of post-Weberian responsibility, that is of an ethics and politics that overcome the traditional divisions between theory and practice, cognition and emotion, Verantwortung (responsibility) and Gesinnung (conviction), and therefore succeed in enhancing the citizens' awareness and attitudes as "democratic co-legislators". The case study of Matthew Lipman's "Philosophy for Children/Community" succeeds precisely in highlighting these results.