Dipping into any chapter of this book, children will find lively scenarios and dialogues to take them through philosophical puzzles both ancient and modern, involving such topics as virtual reality, cloning, science fiction and a host of characters from this and other planets.

Perhaps because of the eternal juvenile question 'why?', an increasing number of schools feature philosophy in their curriculum. The Philosophy Files presents some of the oldest and thorniest questions in philosophy in an accessible, interesting and provocative manner. The format for each chapter, or file, is to gain the reader's interest with a very short story posing a philosophical problem. Then various ways of answering the problem are examined using stories, examples and illustrations. Generally these answers are found to be unsatisfactory, and readers are encouraged to think it out for themselves. The resolution features fictional young philosophers making both sides of the argument. Law does not dictate which side to take, and the text answers some but not all questions. Readers are faced with the ultimate challenge of making up their own minds.

This is a jargon-free, entertaining, uncomplicated approach to philosophy which makes no assumptions and encourages original thinking. Many of the examples could be adapted for thought activities and lively classroom debate from KS2 onwards. For this reason, it would have been useful if further reference and resource material had been listed.

2008-08-10