Abstract This article brings Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics into critical conversation with the pedagogical practice of philosophy in schools, focusing particularly on Philosophy for Children (P4C). While P4C offers a rich pedagogical model for developing reasonableness through the Community of Inquiry (CoI), its account of the conditions under which understanding occurs remains somewhat underdeveloped. Although some scholars have situated P4C in relation to hermeneutics, this engagement is limited. Addressing this gap, the key Gadamerian ideas of tradition, prejudice, and the fusion of horizons and dialogue are explored here to deepen and extend the theoretical considerations of inquiry in P4C. The discussion argues that Gadamer’s theory of understanding as shaped by history and tradition challenges the ideal of facilitator neutrality associated with P4C. Gadamer’s reconceptualisation of prejudice as a productive condition of understanding reframes the teacher and student as historically constituted participants in open dialogue that raises questions and that leads to a ‘fusion of horizons’ where differing perspectives meet and reshape one another. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) becomes a local hermeneutic space where a diversity of horizons meet, are challenged and are fused, as participants bring their fore-meanings into philosophical enquiry. While some tensions between Gadamer’s hermeneutics and P4C are acknowledged, these tensions are treated as productive of a more nuanced account of inquiry that positions P4C as a living expression of hermeneutic principles in education.
Leon Benade (Sat,) studied this question.