Reconceptualizing Children's Disobedience through Matthew Lipman's Three-Dimensional Thinking and Deleuze's Reading of Bartleby the Scrivener: Opening a Window to New Possibilities

 
This article aims to deconceptualize and re-conceptualize children’s disobedience by drawing inspiration from Lipman's three-dimensional thinking and Deleuze's reading of Bartleby the Scrivener. To achieve this goal, we have employed a philosophical-critical exploration method to examine the concept of disobedience and its various types, followed by an analysis of children's disobedience. In doing so, we have deconstructed previous perceptions of children's disobedience to demonstrate that it has intrinsic value and can be considered a part of their "voice" and a representation of their agency. In the second step, using the theoretical foundations of Matthew Lipman's philosophy for children, we have re-conceptualized children's disobedience, showing that based on the three dimensions of thinking—critical, creative, and caring—children's disobedience can take three forms: immature, semi-mature, and mature. Following Deleuze's reading, we have also discussed the "movement" of children's disobedience in two forms: active and passive. Finally, we have introduced dialogue as a drive or energy that enables children to move among the different types of disobedience. In this way, children's disobedience is given the opportunity to reveal its various forms, move between them, thus, add new possibilities to the world; possibilities that reach their peak in mature disobedience.
 
Keywords: Children's Disobedience, Lipman's Three-Dimensional Thinking, Deleuze, Dialogue. P4/wC. 
Introduction
We often admire many disobedient individuals in various fields of life because they have, in some way, altered the course of human history and opened new paths for thought and action. However, when it comes to children, their disobedience becomes an annoying and undesirable factor for us adults, and we try to eliminate it. As a result, children's disobedience is generally associated with negative connotations and is seen as a disruptive element in fields such as psychology, parenting, education, and training, which must be eradicated. Additionally, in some Eastern traditions and cultures, where obedience, compliance, and submission are regarded as forms of respect and are praised as virtues, this dissatisfaction with children's disobedience likely runs deeper, closing the door on the possibility of a child's disobedience.  Relying on the theoretical foundations of Philosophy for Children (P4C), children's ability to question the current order and their inclination not to conform to the present state—in other words, their disobedience—is a natural ability that we adults gradually weaken and silence. We do this with justifications such as the necessity of socializing children and transmitting values in the home and school. Based on this critical perspective, this article aims to reconceptualize children's disobedience using the theoretical foundations of P4C. Our central question in this endeavor is: How can we reconceptualize a child's disobedience using these foundations in such a way that its capacities are activated, and new possibilities are added to the world?
Materials & Methods
This article can be considered a type of philosophical-critical exploration. Philosophical-critical exploration inherently seeks to go beyond norms and provide "innovation" and propose "alternative" options for inadequate cases. First, we examine the concept of children's disobedience, presenting both supporting and opposing theoretical assumptions as alternatives. Next, inspired by the three dimensions of thinking proposed by Matthew Lipman in the P4C movement and the interpretation of the story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Gilles Deleuze, we attempt to reconceptualize children's disobedience.
Discussion & Result
Recognizing the value of a child's voice and viewing disobedience as one of the expressions of this voice requires breaking away from cultural beliefs and habits, deconstructing concepts, and reconceptualizing the ideas of the child, childhood, and the child's voice and disobedience. This article focuses on the latter. Lipman's three-dimensional thinking includes the critical, creative, and caring dimensions, and he uses analogies (such as basketball) to explain the process of thinking and how to cultivate it. We begin by dissecting the act of disobedience and presenting three states of disobedience: 1) The movement of disobedience in progress (the integration of the act of disobedience and the thought behind it), 2) The act of disobedience itself (the form or shell of disobedience), and 3) The skill with which the act of disobedience is carried out (which corresponds to the dimensions of thinking). In the first level of analysis, we arrive at three types of disobedience: "immature disobedience," "semi-mature disobedience," and "mature disobedience" (where one, two, and three dimensions of thinking are present, respectively). Continuing our effort to reconceptualize, we move to the second level of analysis, where, inspired by Deleuze's reading of "Bartleby, the Scrivener," we propose a division between "active disobedience" and "passive disobedience" from the act of disobedience itself. Combining disobedience with dialogue creates opportunities for disobedience to occur more frequently and maturely. Dialogue can provide an opportunity for “surplus of seeing” and “enriched habits” in the context of disobedience. If disobedience is not accompanied by dialogue, several things can happen: a) The child is deprived of hearing the adult's perspective on their disobedience and evaluating this perspective to arrive at a personal judgment; b) The child finds other ways to achieve their desires; c) The child does not learn how to engage in the dialogical process that clarifies and enriches the values inherent in their disobedience, and ultimately, they become entangled in a form of limitation and distrust that contradicts the principles of democracy and children’s rights. Therefore, in proposing the acceptance of a child's disobedience, the discussion is about recognizing the invitation to enter a world with new capacities before labeling the child's disobedience or silencing the child's voice through one-dimensional educational methods. We should give it an opportunity, accompany it with dialogue and language, so that new possibilities can emerge, and perhaps a space for the emergence of mature disobedience can also be created.
Conclusion
Children's disobedience should be seen as a remarkable capacity, just as the questioning of children is now widely accepted. Programs like Philosophy for/with Children aim to preserve this inherent characteristic of children. In response to the question, "Why is a child's disobedience valuable?" it can be argued that: A child is inherently valuable; the child's voice is inherently valuable; disobedience is part of this voice; therefore, a child's disobedience is inherently valuable. Since we consider a child's disobedience as part of their voice, it should be regarded as valuable to the same extent as the child's voice. In the second part of our exploration, we sought to reconceptualize children's disobedience using the theoretical foundations of P4C to introduce disobedience as a path for new beginnings and the manifestation of new possibilities in the world. We proposed a way for this disobedience—as part of the child's voice and agency—to be better seen and heard. From our perspective, the way to reveal the new possibilities that children bring with them is through the combination of disobedience with dialogue. In the light of reconceptualizing disobedience, dialogue also finds a more precise meaning. Dialogue can be seen as energy or force that enables movement among the various forms of disobedience. In fact, dialogue can be considered a good candidate for this combination because it provides the opportunity for a surplus of seeing, enriches habits and behavioral patterns, and ultimately, possesses an ethical dimension. Through the combination of disobedience and dialogue, children's disobedience is allowed to reveal its different forms, move among them, and add new possibilities to the world—possibilities that reach their peak in mature disobedience.