Original Paper UDC 159.923.2:[371.3:1] Received January 1 st , 2011 Marjan Šimenc University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, SI–1000 Ljubljana marjan.simenc@pei.si The Role of Identity in Teaching Philosophy Abstract The article deals with different roles of identity in teaching philosophy. The first part of the discussion focuses on identity as a subject to be taught, i.e. identity as the content of philo- sophical theories that are taught at school. The second deals with identity as a subject of investigation, which pertains foremost to the students’ everyday lives and the identities they take on or are ascribed to them. The third part concerns an identity that is not there – an identity that is absent, leaving a void that is yet to be filled. All these different aspects high- light the multi-faceted nature of the concept of identity, so one of the aims of this discussion is to provide an answer to the question whether identity can nowadays still be considered one of the key concepts of philosophy or has it been reduced to a marginal aspect in under- standing the human condition today. Key words Identity, philosophy, philosophy for children, didactics of philosophy, difference I The traditional concept of teaching philosophy in Slovenian high schools and elsewhere has featured teaching about philosophers and their works as its integral part. It seems that this teaching method had been well established and that new teachers merely stayed faithful to this tradition. They perpetuated the tradition that the aim of philosophy education is conveying the tradition of philosophy. Of course, this teaching tradition as such is also closely linked to an identity – the identity of philosophy. It is the story of philosophy including a beginning, protagonists, a plot and an ending that provides the philosophical tradition with an identity. This story of tradition is characterised by a particular inner tension due to the fact that that the key element of it is the story about break- ing with traditions. The story of Socrates, one of the founders of philosophy, who promoted the transition from mythos to logos, is a good example. A dis- cipline that has established itself as a criticism of the tradition is nowadays acquiring its identity in school by assuming the role of the tradition itself. This tradition was considered to be a treasury of ideas by past philosophers. The knowledge of this wealth of ideas was believed to be a significant part of general education. And being an element of general education, philosophy has been able to retain its status of a high school subject. Nevertheless, philosophy teachers were often faced with problems. Their stu- dents did learn the names of philosophers, when and where they had lived and what they had written, but they had considerable difficulties understanding