Description
About the Practical Philosophy courses:
Children are natural born scientists that want to know how life works. That’s why they ask hundreds of why-questions: they naturally like to learn and be amazed.
This amazement is at the core of each Practical Philosophy course. It provides the motivation for the children to partake in the games that I will present them with, during which they will practice valuable life skills.
- By listening to other children’s ideas and arguments, the Practical Philosophy courses provide training in perspectivist flexibility, which is the basis for empathy.
- By formulating their own questions, ideas and arguments, they practice logical reasoning and argumentation skills.
Through fun activities and games, the children will practice developing their own thoughts, which will grow their confidence in their capabilities for independent thinking.
In order to keep the topics and conversations age appropriate, we work with small age brackets of only 2 years.
The materials used will mainly be sourced from Filosovaardig, which provides award winning games for philosophising with children since 2011 (more info, see: filosovaardig.nl).
About the instructor:
My name is Stijn Rubens, (MBA, 1977, Antwerpen) and I’m the married father of one son aged 11. In 2010, I followed the love of my life and moved to London and after Brexit we came to settle in Heemskerk.
Both my parents were translators and so the correct usage of language, the accurate thinking that accompanies it and the humor that compensates for both, were very present in my upbringing. Later in life I studied economics, started my career in the maritime industry, and joined a global shipping consultancy in London, since 2014.
Although I’ve always had a certain intellectual interest, my desire to independently develop my own thinking came to the fore about 5 years ago. So I explored pursuing an academic study in philosophy which, unfortunately, didn't fit within the practical constraints imposed by my job and my family responsibilities. Luckily however, I was able to integrate the professional education of Philosophical Practitioners, at the ISVW (International School of Philosophy) in 2023.
Since then, I've devoted myself, as a side job for now, to propagating the benefits that Practical Philosophy can bring to children, adults and organisations through my Philosophical Practice DenkOase.
