About the director of the institution

Mohammad Reza Vaez Shahrestani (born in May 1985) is a researcher at the University Of Bonn, Germany. He has been the headmaster of the Iranian Center for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children and Youth (ICAPCY), a subset of the Cultural and Artistic Institute Royesh Digar (Peydaayesh) since 2018. Vaez has been the managing editor of the Royesh Digar (Peydaayesh) Cultural and Artistic Institute since 2010 till now. In 2022, Vaez Shahrestani founded the Yara Book House, a subset of the Royesh Digar Cultural and Artistic Institute (Peydaayesh).

Mohammad Reza Vaez has participated in the facilitation courses of the Philosophy for Children Program at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) at Montclair State University, USA in person and is a member of the editorial team of the “Journal of Childhood and Philosophy”. For the past four years, he has been held the administration of the Philosophy Department of the non-governmental educational complex Pooyesh in Tehran and also executes free philosophy courses for children in person and online. According to the Mehr News Agency reportage, he is one of the activists in the field of philosophy for children in Iran. Also he has been executing the introductory, advanced, and internship training courses on “fostering facilitators of the Philosophy for Children program” at the Yara Institute (ICAPCY) since 2023.

Academic Background

Mohammad Reza Vaez completed his bachelor’s degree in civil and structural engineering in 2008, completed his master’s degree in philosophy of science between 2009 and 2012 under the guidance of Dr. Mehdi Nasrin under the title of “Transcendental Conditions for Having the Language of Science in the Thoughts of Donald Davidson” at Amirkabir University of Technology, and completed his PhD in philosophy of science by writing a thesis entitled “Conceptual Schemes in the Philosophy of Kant and Davidson” at the University of Bonn, Germany and the Iranian Institute of Philosophy (IRIP) in 2022.

Workshops

• Graduated from the Philosophy for Children Program Facilitation Course in person, at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) at Montclair State University, USA (an institution founded by Matthew Lipman, the founder of this program), under the supervision of Professor Maughn Gregory and Professor David Kennedy in 2017 in Mendham, New Jersey.

• Graduated from the German Idealism Summer School at the University of Bonn, Germany, under the supervision of Professor Michael Foster and Professor Markus Gabriel, 2015, Bonn, Germany.

Research Interests

In addition to his activity in the field of philosophy for children, he has also written and researched in the fields of critique of pseudoscience, philosophy of artificial intelligence, philosophy of psychological science, critical thinking in psychology, philosophy in life, reasoning in the media, existentialism, and philosophy of literature.

Research Activities

• The book ” Nothing but the Echo of a Song: A Philosophical Reflection on Forough Farrokhzad’s Poetry and Lifeworld” and the article:

“Forough’s Existentialist Lifeworld: A Minimalist Reading” in the journal Literature & Aesthetics, University of Sydney, Australia, are among his published works in the field of philosophy and literature.

• The article “Formation of the Language of Science in the Context of Natural Language” with the collaboration of Dr. Mehdi Nasrin, Quarterly Journal of Alavi Human Methodology, Volume 24, Issue 97, Winter 2018, pp. 101-115

• The article “A Criticism and Review of the Boat Poetryof Nima Yushij from an Existentialist and Formalist viewpoint” with the collaboration of Reyhaneh Vaez Shahrestani, Etelat Hekmat va Marefat Scientific-Specialized Monthly Magazine, Issue 147, July 2018

• The article “An Existentialist Reading of Forough Farrokhzad”, Etelat Hekmat va Marefat Monthly Magazine, Issue 119, March 2015

• Translation of Article “A Framework for Facilitating Classroom Discussion, Maughn Gregory, Quarterly Journal of  Philosophy and Child, Issue 8, Summer 2015

• “In Defense of the Turing Test”, Etelat Hekmat va Marefat Scientific-Specialized Monthly Magazine, Issue 106, February 2014

• Publication of an article in the journal of the University Of Sydney, Australia entitled:

“Forough’s Existentialist Lifeworld: A Minimalist Reading”, Literature & Aesthetics (journal of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics), Vol 28, No 2, 2018

• Publication of an article in the journal of the David Publishing Company entitled:

“Defending Davidson’s Anti-skepticism Argument: A Reply to Otavio Bueno”, Philosophy Study, Volume 7, Number 11, November 2017 David Publishing Company

• Publication of an article in the journal of Science Direct entitled:

“Davidson’s no-priority thesis in defending the Turing Test”, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Cognitive Science (ICCS 2011): Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences 32, 456- 46, Elsevier’s new e-journal, 2012

Conference Attendance

• Oral Conference in 2024 at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy:

Oral Conference, “Common Human Understanding in the Community of Philosophical Inquiry”, XXV World Congress of Philosophy (WCP 2024, Rome), Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, August 1-8, 2024.

• Oral Conference in 2023 at the University of Graz, Austria:

Oral Conference, “Kant’s Maxims of Common Human Understanding in the Community of Philosophical Inquiry”, International Congress for Philosophy of Children: Can there be new paths for knowledge and humanity? Upheavals – Progress – Images of the Future, Graz University, Austria, November 16-18, 2023.

• Oral Conference in 2023 at Leiden University, Netherlands:

Oral Conference, “A Formalist and Existentialist Analysis of Nima Yushij’s “The Boat”, Mohammad Reza Vaez Shahrestani and Reihane Vaez Shahrestani, The European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS), Leiden University, Netherlands, 21-25 August 2023.

• Oral presentation of the paper, “The Principles of Common Human Understanding from Immanuel Kant’s viewpoint in the Philosophical Community of Inquiry”, paper presentation at the Lifeworld Panel of Childhood and Philosophy of Childhood, International Conference on the Lifeworld of Childhood in Iran, 2015, online

• Oral presentation of a paper at the 6th International Conference on Cognitive Sciences in the Philosophy of Mind (Paper title: Defending Davidson’s anti-Skepticism argument), May 2015, Razi International Conference Hall (University of Iran), Tehran

• Poster presentation of a paper at the 5th International Conference on Cognitive Sciences in the Philosophy of Mind (Paper title: Davidson and Global Skepticism: A Response to Professor Otavio Bueno), May 2013, Shahid Beheshti University International Conference Hall, Tehran

• Paper presentation at the 5th National Conference on Psychosomatics (Paper title: Investigating the Effect of Philosophical Community of Inquiry on Reducing the symptoms of adolescent mental illness”), June 2013, Ibn Sina Conference Hall, Shahr-e-Kord University of Medical Sciences, Shahr-e-Kord

• Oral presentation of a paper at the 4th International Conference on Cognitive Sciences in the Field of Philosophy of Mind (Paper title: “Davidson’s no priority thesis in defending the Turing Test”), May 2011, Tehran University of Medical Sciences Community Hall, Tehran

Presence in Media

Since 2019, Mohammad Reza Vaez has been promoting science, criticizing pseudoscience, and explaining philosophy to the general public in Iranian cyberspace. He has given interviews in the press, some of which are listed below:

• Introduction to (P4C) Philosophy for Children in Hamshahri Online Newspaper

• Teaching Thinking and Philosophy to Children Has Been Neglected in ISNA

• Philosophy Asks Questions of Its Own in ISNA

• With All the Emptiness, I’m Full Of You! in Mardom Salari Newspaper

• “Adel” as a Philosopher in Mardom Salari Newspaper

• Human Becomes More Aware of Death in Farhikhtegan Newspaper

• Immigration and Responsibility for Others in Mehr News Agency

• A Philosophical and Literary Look to Forough’s Poetry in ISNA

• “Why Philosophy?” Conference will be held in ISNA

• No one can philosophizing without Kant in Etemad Newspaper

• “One must run to the end of being”/ Sohrab Sepehri and Heidegger in Mehr News Agency

• “Dersu Uzala”; A milestone in the relationship between human and nature in ISNA

• “Thoughtfulness in Iranian Society during the Safavid Era” conference will be held in ISNA

• An exercise for peaceful coexistence/ A reflection on the purpose of reasoning in Mehr News Agency

• Was Forough an existentialist? A philosophical reading by Forough Farrokhzad Mohammad Reza Vaez’s conversation with IMNA

• Stay and build! | A note from Mohammad Reza Vaez Shahrestani about his re-migration on the Ensaf predicative-analytical news

Teaching records

International workshops

• At the 2022 meeting of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children (ICPIC), which was held in Japan and coincided with the Corona epidemic, a workshop entitled “Creative Methods in Philosophical Inquiry with Noisy and Hyperactive Students” was held online by Dr. Vaez.

• At the 2024 meeting of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children (ICPIC), Dr. Mohammad Reza Vaez Shahrestani held a workshop focusing on philosophical inquiry for pioneers, researchers, facilitators, and activists of the philosophy for children program at this meeting. The workshop was held in person at the University of Naples Federico II in Naples, Italy, on July 30, in English.

International Ideation Conference Poster

• Vaez will be presenting at the International Conference “Ideation 2025” organized by the North American Association for the Research Community: Creative Engagement in Philosophy for/with Children, University of Montreal, an international workshop for facilitators and practitioners of philosophy for children entitled: “Integrating the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence into Philosophy for Children: A Lesson Plan for Exploring Data Privacy through the Philosophical Research Community.” The workshop will be held in Quebec, Canada, from August 8 to 10, 2025.

Inside Iran

Dr. Vaez has been teaching in the

Psychology Department of Azad University of Najafabad for six years;

at the University of Isfahan in the Philosophy of Science Department and the Scientific Association of Psychology;

also at the Islamic Association and the Panjehre Center of Isfahan University of Technology; Amin Institute of Higher Education;

at the Khane Hekmat in Isfahan;

Iranische Gemeinde in Deutschland;

the Tehran Children’s Book Council;

the Tehran Acquainted Friends’ House,

the Digar Cultural and Artistic Institute,

the Jivehgi Liberal Arts Institute,

the Telsi Academy,

and the Rooyesh Digar Cultural and Artistic Institute (Peeydayesh).

Bibliography

• The book “Conceptual Schemes from the viewpoint of Kant and Davidson”, Negah Moaser Publishing, Tehran, 1401

• The book “Nothing But the Echo of a Song: A Philosophical Reflection on the Poetry and Lifeworld of Forough Farrokhzad”, Negah Moaser Publishing, Tehran, 2018 (and second edition in 2023)

• The book “Philosophy in Life: Essays in Philosophy, Philosophy for Children and Critical Thinking”, Negah Moaser Publishing, Tehran, 2010 (and second edition 2022)

• Scientific editing of the story and guidebook “Harry Stotَtlemeier’s Discovery (novel)” by Matthew Lipman, Kargadan Publishing, Tehran, 2022