Some people think of philosophy as arcane and remote from the concerns of ordinary life. In his play The Clouds, Aristophanes lampoons philosophers like Socrates for having his head, quite literally, in the clouds. The members of Madison Public Philosophy, founded by UW-Madison philosophy graduate students in 2016, beg to differ. They see philosophy as a source of questions and methods that can potentially enrich the lives of everyone. Prometheus-like, they have made it their mission to bring philosophy to the Madison public—including kids. I recently got together with Katie Deaven, who has been a very active member of MPP, to ask her about some of the things MPP has done in the past and what she envisions for future public philosophy in Madison.
Katie told me that last year the group organized public events based on the “community of inquiry framework,” which has roots in the work of John Dewey, C. S. Peirce, and Jane Addams. These communal inquiries, which were open to all Madisonians, lasted an hour and a half and were led by two “discussion facilitators,” who guided participants in their philosophical investigations. They typically began with the presentation of a “stimulus” aimed at eliciting a shared experience that could form the basis of philosophical discussion. The participants were then placed in small groups to come up with a question they wanted to collectively explore. Once settled on a question, they used the remaining time to try to reach consensus on an answer. For example, one set of facilitators used the following as a stimulus: they distributed parts of a “creature” to participants and asked them to figure out what the parts looked like. The participants then put all the different, separately crafted parts together and saw what they had made [
see picture by clicking HERE]. After this, they left the creature and walked around, discussing what it should be called and imagining what kind of life it would live. While this was happening, one of the facilitators destroyed the creature. The participants then reflected on this experience, came up with some candidate philosophical questions for discussion, and ultimately voted to inquire into the following question: what considerations are relevant when we decide to create a being? (I probably would have been prompted to ask: why is there senseless destruction in the world?)
MPP has also engaged in other community projects, such as setting up interactive stations at the Madison Children’s Museum. One of these events, which presented various optical illusions, was designed to get people thinking about what we can and can’t be certain of. As Katie told me, both kids and their parents were really into it. Unbeknownst to themselves they were inquiring into the age-old issue of external world skepticism.
Before the pandemic, members of MPP regularly taught philosophy to kindergarteners at John Muir Elementary. Using lesson plans that they devised according to a modified version of the community of inquiry framework, they taught philosophy in the only real way that philosophy can be taught: by getting kids to do it. These sessions often brought important insights. Katie shared one particularly memorable experience:
“This was I want to say Spring of 2019. We did a lesson on what makes something imaginary with kindergarteners. We read this book about an imaginary friend who ended up not necessarily being totally imaginary. And then we gave students a bunch of pipe cleaners and other craft supplies, and we had them make their own imaginary critter. This was the experience portion of the inquiry. We then got them in a circle for the inquiry with their imaginary critters in front of them and asked them what makes their creature imaginary. One shared that the dragon they had made was imaginary because dragons never existed. In response, another kindergartener raised their hand and responded that their critter was a dinosaur and dinosaurs existed so that can’t be what makes something imaginary. So we asked, ‘what makes your dinosaur imaginary?’ He said ‘my dinosaur breathes fire and when dinosaurs existed they didn’t breathe fire, so that’s what makes it imaginary.’ So we got the kindergarteners to separate things from the properties they might hold. And we got them to see how attributing properties might change whether we think they are imaginary or real. That was cool, and I remember it being a really exciting indicator of progress, that they were able to build on each other’s responses and even propose counterexamples to each other.”
Katie also filled me in on some other public philosophy activities she has pursued, as well as where she wants to take public philosophy in the future. During the pandemic, she was involved in efforts to adapt the community of inquiry framework to an on-line format. This resulted in the creation of on-line lesson plans (e.g. for Zoom) that will allow philosophers to reach the public, including kids, without needing, as Socrates did, a shared physical space. In the Zoom age, the agora is limitless. Katie is currently developing a class for undergraduates and graduate students at UW-Madison, aimed at teaching them how to do public philosophy, including how to teach philosophy to kids. Katie sees the class as an opportunity to consolidate the extensive work that MPP has already done (for example, by archiving lesson plans and doing interviews with past members of MPP); to insure a constant influx of people doing public philosophy in Madison; and to open up exciting new possibilities for public philosophy projects around Madison and beyond. Among other things, she mentioned the possibility of students writing and producing philosophy podcast episodes and a postcard program in which students send questions to philosophers.
If Katie and likeminded philosophers have their way, public philosophy in Madison will continue to flourish. Socrates said he was god’s gift to the city. I’m not saying that about Katie and MPP. (But I’m also not not saying it.) What I will say is that in Madison philosophers don’t have their heads in the clouds. They are down to earth, and down to give back something useful to the community.