Identity, Reasonableness and Being One Among Others

Professor Laurance Splitter has an academic background in mathematics and philosophy and was elected as a fellow of the Australian College of Educators. He taught philosophy and education at universities in Australia, the USA, and Hong Kong, and has been a visiting professor at several universities, most recently the University of Hiroshima, Japan, in 2017-18. For almost 40 years, Laurance has been a pioneer in the development of Philosophy for Children around the world, where he was able to combine the intellectual rigor of analytic philosophy with the more person-centered approach of communal inquiry and dialogue.  He was an inaugural director of the Australasian Center for Philosophy with Children and Adolescents, within the Australian Council for Educational Research (1988-2001). In that context, he sought to bring the wonders of philosophy, with its rigorous but open-ended approach to thinking and dialogue, to students and teachers. Many of his publications and conference/seminar presentations have been similarly directed. In recent years, Laurance broadened his core interest in connecting philosophy and formal education to examine how analytic philosophy can contribute to clarifying and, perhaps, resolving, some contemporary issues in the social sciences, involving identity, individualism and collectivism, personhood and citizenship, the role of community, dialogue, narrative, and political/moral tribalism. While retired from full-time work, Laurance continues to write and publish academic literature and give conference and seminar presentations. He teaches philosophy at several campuses of the University of the 3rd Age and facilitates philosophical discussions among students at several schools.

Introduction.- What identity really is and why it matters.- On being a person as one among others.- The moral implications of being one among others (I): Descriptive and prescriptive perspectives on personhood, and the normative ideal of reasonableness.- The moral implications of being one among others (II): Persons, groups, and the Principle of Personal Worth.- Narrative and personhood: A fraught relationship.- Democracy and education: Cultivating reasonableness. 

“This is an important and timely book, refuting the confusion of attempting to find identity in qualities or collectives and in view of its reference to classroom contexts, one which should be of special interest to readers of Educational Philosophy and Theory.” (Jim Mackenzie, Educational Philosophy and Theory, April 11, 2023)