Date of Completion

5-1989

Document Type

Open Access Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

First Advisor

John R. Murray

Second Advisor

Steve Schwartz

Third Advisor

Gareth Matthews

Abstract

Philosophical Spacing (PS), a phenomenon found in the philosophic dialectic, is defined as a space or break from the formal work of the philosophical dialectic, and is suspected to be a necessary interval which permits higher order cognitive processing to take place so that the analytical work of the dialectic can develop. An example of modern philosophical dialectics, the philosophical novels for children by Matthew Lipman, was analyzed to study the structural and contextual nature of PS in order to complement a study in progress of the philosophical dialectics of the Earliest Socratic Dialogues. Using a structural analysis of 21 randomly chosen philosophical dialectic, PS was found to occur with consistent regularity in a majority of the segment structures of these philosophical dialectics. Using a contextual analysis of 147 randomly chosen PSs to study its qualitative composition, PS was found to be comprised of positive and negative synergetic combinations of elements, of which 7 were identified. An interrater reliability test, scored with Cohen's Kappa statistic, confirms the study's reliability. It was found that a sample of contemporary dialectics, the philosophical dialectics in the philosophical novels for children by Matthew Lipman, confirms the existence and use of PS in the philosophical dialectic.

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