Today, philosophy is spreading in our society through forms of education and public dialogue, as can be seen in such examples as cafés-philos, philosophy education in schools, and specialized programs like Philosophy for Children (P4C), or the International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO). However, such activities are still limited to the effort made by regional communities and small organizations. There are manpower and financial problems, and their methods and contents are still at a stage of experimentation and development. In November 2012, UTCP organized a workshop on philosophical dialogue, in which nearly eighty people participated. From this, we felt that there was a great need and potential for philosophical dialogue in our society. In fiscal 2013, we plan to organize more workshops and lectures in order to promote exchange between the experts of philosophical dialogue and philosophy educators both from Japan and overseas. This will enable us to share methodology, and to build a strong national and international network. We also plan to hold a seminar regularly to develop and learn methods and contents.

Coordinator: KAJITANI Shinji (The University of Tokyo)

* The L3 Project “International Conferences on the Politics of Co-existence” from fiscal 2012 has been integrated into the L1 Project “Dialogical Practice between Eastern and Western Philosophy”. The coordinators of the new L1 Project are NAKAJIMA Takahiro and ISHII Tsuyoshi.