Abstract:

The present paper aims to theorize the constructionist dimension of philosophy teaching. Constructionist approach includes an epistemic and a pragmatic dimension, the accent being placed on the interdependence between knowledge and action in the social sphere. The appreciative approach of philosophy is based on the works of David Cooperrider on "Appreciative Inquiry", as being a discourse form that replaces the focus from the deficiency paradigm on the success elements from previous experience of individuals, groups, organizations or communities. Teaching appreciative philosophy can be seen as a way of making philosophy into an applied philosophy. We propose transforming the classical lectures into real philosophical counseling modules, starting from the interpretation of students' own life experiences, reported to the themes and philosophical reasons. Students' ability to generate their own interpretive vision of the world can be overcome by opening a series of creative horizons upon the events' significance which they are facing or they are in contact with. Constructionist vision enables the transition of philosophical discourse from its academic dimension, of pure speculation, to applied philosophy, which is closer to the original meaning of the term "love of wisdom".

Equality between colleagues turns the "social distance" between the partners of the educational act, moving the accent from the difference in the amount of knowledge, on to equality in creative potential and ability to produce efficiency in their own area of expertise. Appreciative seminars are generally a pedagogy which is based on identifying the positive and the resources which are mutually transformative, for both students and teachers, through collaborative creativity. There's a transformation process of the problem to be resolved in a mystery that can be deepened. In this sense, the philosophical method proposed by Lucian Blaga, namely the "transfiguration antinomy" by centering it into the "horizon of mystery" creates prerequisites for integrating appreciative methodology in the current space of philosophizing.

The pretext of starting an appreciative collaborative research represents a "playful framework", which we call "teaching context", which can be any element of everyday experience, their own successful cases, a new approach to a topic, a social context, etc. It can be clearly outlined as an objective of the seminar, reserving time work for appreciative dialogue, or may be considered a general framework, when the subject is built gradually through dialogue between students and teacher.
The appreciative interview model in teaching philosophy is based on Socratic and Platonic maieutic dialogues, generally keeping the same orientation that is printed by Athenian thinkers, such of good understanding, truth beauty, both in contexts in which they appear and as generative potential to social reality. Ideas are re-thanked under the form of constructions, which although have no longer ontological autonomy, they retains the ability to create reality. Bringing maieutic and dialogue in the horizon of applied philosophy, of rhetoric of philosophical didactics in our case, allow the understanding and experiencing of philosophizing, as an experience of creation of meanings, being so a daily act, and also implicitly rarely realized in the current social reality. We will present an appreciative ethic to be apply in educational field.

Keywords:

Appreciative Inquiry, appreciative seminars, philosophy, deficiency paradigm, success elements from previous experience.