Ethics-Based Philosophical Inquiries in Canadian High Schools Hold the Potential to Shape Future Canadians into Sincere and Respectful Democratic Citizens

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present and defend the idea that the introduction of carefully selected philosophical concepts may provide an opportunity for Canadian students to critically analyze their situations or tasks, enabling them to make well reasoned rational choices. The study of ethical inquiries through various cultural sources can become a good catalyst to inspire students to think mindfully. Therefore, including the study of ethics in the Canadian high school curriculum may benefit students in many facets of their lives. For example, introduction to various cultural sources may benefit Canadian society as a whole by promoting the sentiment of fraternity among Canadian youth, and offering the potential to give Canada a future generation who are sincere and respectful democratic citizens. John Dewey, an educational reformer, suggested that: A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. The extension in space of the number of individuals who participate in an interest so that each has to refer his own action to that of others, and to consider the action of others to give point to his own, is equivalent to the breaking down of those barriers of class, race, and national territory which have kept men from perceiving the full import of their activity. (Noddings 2013, 12)