Axiology is the study of value: what is valuable or valued and why we value it. Axiology is broken into two parts: ethics and aesthetics. Ethics is concerned with good action; aesthetics is concerned with beauty. Aesthetics pops up in the curriculum in two main places: Art and English Language Arts. This post will look at P4C, aesthetics, and art.
Aesthetics and Art in the P4C classroom
What is art? What makes “good” art? What are the goals of art? From where does an artwork derive meaning? Can art have multiple meanings? Can art have no meaning? Should art and artists be publicly funded? (what is the role of government?) What role does art play in culture? Why? Which is better: abstract art or realist art?
These are just a few of the incredibly rich and complex questions which come up in a P4C lesson on art. In order to raise these questions, a good stimulus/provocation is required. Depending on the specific questions/issues a teacher wants to address, they could choose different stimuli. For example, if it’s the realism/abstract dichotomy, the provocation could be images of two paintings. I’ve chosen these two, but teachers could pick any two they like that are sufficiently different as to promote substantive discussion:
This painting is photo-realistic and depicts a real-life scene.
This painting is quite abstract but it still depicts a real-life scene. Together, the two paintings make clear to students how different art can be, and how its value can be derived from different aspects. For example, we may value the Repin painting for its raw skill in depicting a photo-realistic scene; but we may also value Marc’s painting for its use of colour and different levels of abstraction and meaning.
It would be difficult to find two paintings more different than these, while keeping the level of abstraction to a moderate level. This is important because it is easy to alienate students: for example, I would not use Barnett Newman’s “Onement VI” which is simply a blue field bisected by a white line – at least not when introducing aesthetic concepts.
However, such a painting might have an important role to play later in a lesson, or perhaps as a lead in to a second lesson on aesthetics. “Onement VI” could be a bridge between the value of abstract vs realist art into a discussion about what art is or the meaning of art.
Books can also provide a great entry point for a discussion on aesthetics. For example, a lesson using Jon Agee’s “The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau” could be an opportunity to discuss the merits of realism in artworks, and art aesthetics in general: What makes art meaningful? What makes art good? What is realism? Why is it valued?
Art and books about art can also be a great jumping off point for discussions about other topics. For example, why are people willing to spend millions of dollars on certain works of art? Is it about the art? Or can art itself become a symbol for something else – wealth, power, culture, etc.? While in a previous post I warned against tangential discussions, this was merely in regard to non-philosophical discussions. If you start with a lesson on aesthetics and end up talking philosophically about power, wealth, oppression, etc., this is okay! This is a great example of the co-creation of a lesson by students and the teacher. Never attach yourself dogmatically to a lesson’s end goal. If students are interested in a particular skein, explore it!
Art is also a great entry point for discussion about difficult topics such as residential schools. Kent Monkman’s artwork below is rich in detail and meaning and tells the story of the brutality of the Canadian government and the Catholic and Anglican churches. It raises important philosophical questions about power, race, culture, and oppression.
Finally, if you need to find books, my favourite resource is the Internet Archive, which is basically a free library which lets you “loan” books online. The resource is more useful for older books, but sometimes these are some of the most philosophically interesting books. For example, “The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau” is available through this resource.
And if you need P4C book ideas, check out the resource list below.
Resources
A wonderful list of books and philosophical connections: https://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/BookModule/BookModule
More books: https://www.p4c.org.nz/resources/books/
More books (and some commentary/justification): https://fivebooks.com/best-books/philosophy-children-peter-worley/
Internet Archive (books for loan – fantastic resource): https://archive.org/details/books
Philosophy for Children in the British Columbia Classroom 
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