Mohammad Reza Vaez Shahrestani is a philosophy researcher based at the University of Bonn, Germany. He holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science, with doctoral research on Kant and Davidson on Conceptual Schemes. He is the Founder and Director of the Iranian Center for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children and Youth (ICAPCY / Yara Center) and the Responsible Director of the Rooyeshedigar Cultural and Artistic Institute in Iran. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the peer reviewed journal Childhood & Philosophy.
His work lies at the intersection of Philosophy for/with Children (P4wC/CPI), philosophy of science, critical thinking, and AI ethics in childhood education. Since 2018, he has designed and led facilitator training programmes in P4wC, including supervised practicum based training for early career facilitators. He has presented papers and workshops at a number of international events, including the SOPHIA Network Meeting 2025 in Malta, PLATO’s 7th Biennial Conference 2025 at Tufts University, the XXV World Congress of Philosophy in Rome, ICPIC Naples 2024, the ACPC International Conference 2023 at the University of Graz, and ICPIC Tokyo 2022.
His recent work focuses on the ethical and educational challenges raised by digital technologies, with particular attention to the integration of AI ethics into Philosophy for Children. In this area, he has developed both lesson based and research oriented work on children’s philosophical inquiry into data privacy and ethical reflection in the digital age. His recent publications include “Kant’s Common Human Understanding in the Community of Philosophical Inquiry” in Childhood & Philosophy and “Fieldnotes: Integrating AI Ethics into Philosophy for Children: Account of a Data Privacy Lesson” in Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis. He is also the recipient of the 2025 SOPHIA bursary award and a 2025 PLATO conference scholarship.