THE OBSCURED CHILDHOOD: A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE FLOURISHING OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN RURAL DIVORCED FAMILIES
Keywords:
Rural divorced families, Preschool children, Flourishing, Subjective well-being, The capability approachAbstract
The situation of preschool children in rural divorced families has been reduced to a mental-health risk issue, while their standing as growing persons with a life of their own has rarely been taken seriously. Returning to the Aristotelian-Nussbaumian tradition of eudaimonia and flourishing, this study treats young children's well-lived life not as a measurable subjective feeling but as an objective state of flourishing unfolded within relationships and institutions. Working as philosophical inquiry rather than empirical measurement, the paper addresses three questions: what existential predicaments confront young children where divorce meets the rural context, namely attachment disruption, the fluidity of self-identity, and early loneliness; how the village's natural world and acquaintance society have been overlooked as growth resources beyond the deficit frame; and how attuned responsiveness, Philosophy for Children, and local cultural life can open pathways to flourishing. The argument is that only after this group is released from the category of the problem child and recognized as a subject of flourishing can policy and educational practice become adequate to the task.References
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