The Philosophy of Childhood in the Digital Age

Abstract

The article is centered at the main approaches to the definition of the concept of a child within the framework of the philosophy of childhood. The position of child in the contemporary society is ambiguous: on the one hand, the life of a child is often placed above the life of an adult, or at least is valued higher than his expected contribution; on the other hand, the interests and desires of children are not really significant for adults and are not taken into account in the process of making decisions, even when they touch the children’s essential needs. One of the main modern approaches in the field of the philosophy of childhood, which is an attempt to explain this fact, suggests that a child is a future adult, first of all. Despite the obvious advantages of this approach ‘child as a little adult’, this concept does not fully meet the requirements of the contemporary digital age; it is rather evident when analyzing the interaction between a child and an adult, since this approach is not able to adequately meet needs and values of the modern digital society. Quite contrary to this, we suggest to consider the concept of childhood within the framework of the cultural-historical ideas by Vygotsky and his followers, which suggests that the central concept in this theory is the idea of development, not limited to growing up as a way to shape an adult from a child, but considered as an unconditional right and a biological norm, as well as an integral part of childhood. This will help to improve interaction with a child, increase the standard of living of a certain child, as well as the flexibility and integrity of the individual, especially under the uncertainty of the expected transformational processes of the contemporary digital age.