Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Books

Tinker Thinkers by Susan Gardner & Amy Leask

Jana Mohr Lone teaches children to argue.

Adults tend to think of children arguing as something negative, because in this context arguments are generally understood to involve fighting, quarreling, anger, frustration, and tears. Philosophers, however, understand argument to involve reasons, not rancor. As students learn in virtually any introductory philosophy class, arguments are attempts to persuade other people of the truth of particular claims based on the reasons offered for them.

In their book Tinker Thinkers (2014), Susan Gardner and Amy Leask, with the help of illustrator Ami Moore, encourage children to argue: that is, to express their views and give good reasons for them, and also to evaluate the reasons other people offer for their beliefs and actions.

…