[Philosophy and Children]: PLEASE take time to read this post. So we had guests over today (family friends) and there was a 7.5 years old girl with them. We quickly became good friends and I wanted to test a book I bought called Philosophy Workshop by Peter Worley. So this book is filled with loads of mind-sharpening, conversational exercises for as young as 5 year old kids and above. I tried it on people of similar age to me and it did wonders but never on children. So I took out the book and we went through the following exercise. We read the following paragraphs first: ===== Start Paragraphs ===== Sitting out the back, in the last of the sun, at the end of another long day of play, Phil and Soph were enjoying some quiet time with bowls of ice cream. This is so delicious! Phil said, as he took a big scoop and lifted it to his mouth. Soph had a full spoonful herself. I know! she said. I would love to have a chocolate ice cream thats blue! Phil thought for a second and then said, I would like to try and ice-cream flavoured ice cream. Sensing a competition, and after having another mouthful of delicious ice cream, Soph said, I want an ice cream with no flavour! ===== End Paragraphs ===== So I start with the first question: what would a blue chocolate ice cream taste of? She first responded by saying that it might taste like blue berry and chocolate ice cream. Knowing thats not what the question implied, I followed up with: the question does not say blue berry, rather it says blue chocolate ice cream. She responded, now realizing that blue is a visual perception and not a taste, explaining that blue cannot be tasted but only seen. So here she realized a difference between her visual and taste senses. The second question: what does ice-cream flavoured ice cream taste like? Here she struggled a bit initially but eventually she understood that ice creams has several flavours but also several common characteristics in its physical texture. She explained that ice has many different flavours in their tastes but it has common physical features such as coldness, moldable, something that melts in the mouth etc. Here she learnt how to distinguish properties in differences and commonalities. The third question: would it be possible to have an ice cream with no flavour? She thought long and hard and finally replied explaining that no ice cream can have no flavour but can have texture as mentioned in previous question. Here she learnt the epistemic differences within a sensory function. Following this line of thought, I then asked her: can there be something with no colour, taste, smell, feel and sound? She thought and first responded yes with a tissue. She however retracted it very quickly. Then she suggested something that is invisible. I then related her example with Harry Potters invisibility cloak and explained even though he was invisible he could still be felt. She retracted again. She then suggested air. I then blew in her face and asked didnt you just feel air? She retracted again. She then suggested that nothing could fit that description. I then asked what about emotions and thoughts. She started thinking deep and hard. She then said that those things are in the mind whereas nothing outside our mind has the properties of no colour, taste, smell, feel and sound. Here she learnt the limits of empiricism and the existence of something beyond the senses. This was done in 15 mins with a 7.5 year old girl. Not only did it sharpen her mind she just did some pretty interesting philosophy without realizing it. I was amazed. I highly recommend parents getting this book and discussing the questions with their kids.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:12:31 +0000
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