Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:10:16.956Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Talking Philosophy with Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2010

Gareth B. Matthews
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When our oldest daughter, Sarah, was four years old the family kitten, Fluffy, contracted fleas. There ensued a primitive ritual of flea extermination that touched off the following discussion:

Sarah: ‘Daddy, how did Fluffy get fleas?’

Me: ‘Oh, I suspect she was playing with a cat that already had fleas. The fleas on that cat jumped off on to Fluffy.’

Sarah (after a moment's reflection): ‘And how did that cat get fleas?’

Me (warming to the regress): ‘Oh, probably from another cat.’

Sarah (impatiently now): ‘But, Daddy, it can't go on and on like that forever. The only thing that goes on and on like that forever is numbers.’

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 10 , March 1976 , pp. 46 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Geach, P. T.Mental Acts (1957), London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Isaacs, S.Intellectual Growth in Young Children (1930), London: Routledge.Google Scholar
James, W.The Principles of Psychology (1890), London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Piaget, J.The Child's Conception of the World (1929), trans. Tomlinson, J. and A., London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Plato, Theaetetus, trans. Cornford, F. M. in Cornford, F. M.Plato's theory of knowledge (1960), London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Watson, J. B.Behaviourism (1925), London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar