Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids

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Okay, I can hear you say: Matthews is yet another philosopher with aphilosophical kid. That doesn’t tell us much about kids in general. But Matthews didn’t stop with his kids. He talked to people who weren’t philosophers—and heard many similar stories about their kids. Then he started to visit schools to talk to more kids himself. He’d read stories that raised philosophical questions to the kids—then he’d listen to the debate that ensued.

Seeing therefore miracles now cease" means that only the books of the Bible can be trusted. Hobbes then discusses the various books which are accepted by various sects, and the "question much disputed between the diverse sects of Christian religion, from whence the Scriptures derive their authority". To Hobbes, "it is manifest that none can know they are God's word (though all true Christians believe it) but those to whom God Himself hath revealed it supernaturally". And therefore "The question truly stated is: by what authority they are made law?" Aaron Levy (October 1954). "Economic Views of Thomas Hobbes". Journal of the History of Ideas. 15 (4): 589–595. doi: 10.2307/2707677. JSTOR 2707677. Other people might see the world differently than we do, and not just in the metaphorical sense that they might have different opinions aboutcontroversial topics. They might actually see the world differently. If I could pop into your head—see through your eyes, with your brain—I might discover that everything is, from my perspective, topsy-turvy. Stop signs might look blue; the sky might look red. Or perhaps the differences would be more subtle—off by a shade, or a bit more vibrant. But since I can’t pop in, I can’t know what the world looks like to you. I can’t even know what it looks like to the people I know best: my wife and kids. Life is but a motion of limbs. For what is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body, such as was intended by the Artificer? [9] Thomas, Hobbes (2006). Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan. Rogers, G. A. J.,, Schuhmann, Karl (A criticaled.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p.12. ISBN 9781441110985. OCLC 882503096.And for the question which may arise sometimes, who it is that the monarch in possession hath designed to the succession and inheritance of his power There is an enormous amount of biblical scholarship in this third part. However, once Hobbes' initial argument is accepted (that no-one can know for sure anyone else's divine revelation) his conclusion (the religious power is subordinate to the civil) follows from his logic. The very extensive discussions of the chapter were probably necessary for its time. The need (as Hobbes saw it) for the civil sovereign to be supreme arose partly from the many sects that arose around the civil war, and to quash the Pope of Rome's challenge, to which Hobbes devotes an extensive section. But Daddy,” Sarah insisted, “it can’t go on and on like that forever; the only thing that goes on and on like that forever is numbers!”

Most parents are easily impressed with the precociousness of their own children. To listen to them gush, each child is a wise philosopher. Hershovitz, director of the Law and Ethics Program at the University of Michigan, believes they’re right. “Every kid—every single one—is a philosopher,” he writes. “They stop when they grow up. Indeed, it may be that part of what it is to grow up is to stop doing philosophy and to start doing something more practical.” The author uses his kids, Rex and Hank, as evidence of children’s instinct for philosophy. The around-the-house scenes and conversations he presents are equal parts hilarious (for years, Hank kept up a facade of not knowing the alphabet to worry his dad) and profound (4-year-old Rex:“I think that, for real, God is pretend, and for pretend, God is real”). When the author is discussing Rex or Hank, good things happen, but Hershovitz’s real goal is to encourage adult readers to maintain their innate ability to philosophize. So, when one of his kids wonders, for example, if he’s dreaming, it leads to an exposition on epistemology. This is where the book falls a bit flat. There’s nothing wrong with the way Hershovitz presents philosophy; his exposition is clear and lively. But the material consists of the same vogue ideas found in most introductory works of philosophy or, these days, on any podcast with a philosophical bent. If you are already familiar with the trolley problem, philosophical zombies, and the simulation argument, you won’t find anything new in their treatment here. In reading about them, you’ll long for Rex and Hank to return. A philosophical conversation with a child is among life’s great pleasures. If you don’t already know this, Hershovitz’s book will be of assistance. In Leviathan, Hobbes explicitly states that the sovereign has authority to assert power over matters of faith and doctrine and that if he does not do so, he invites discord. Hobbes presents his own religious theory but states that he would defer to the will of the sovereign (when that was re-established: again, Leviathan was written during the Civil War) as to whether his theory was acceptable. Hobbes' materialistic presuppositions also led him to hold a view which was considered highly controversial at the time. Hobbes rejected the idea of incorporeal substances and subsequently argued that even God himself was a corporeal substance. Although Hobbes never explicitly stated he was an atheist, many allude to the possibility that he was. Leviathan, Critical edition by Noel Malcolm in three volumes: 1. Editorial Introduction; 2 and 3. The English and Latin Texts, Oxford University Press, 2012 (Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes).Most books about life in other countries fall into one of two categories: one, the travelog or two, the journey of self exploration that just happens to take place overseas (Tuscany, Provence.) These books are good (and often excellent) for what they are, but they never really give you a feel for what it is like to live in a country. When you find one that does (like Tim Macintosh Smith’s immortal Travels in Dictionary Land, or Stephen Clarke’s A Year in the Merde) they are something special. The fourth is by mingling with both these, false or uncertain traditions, and feigned or uncertain history. The argument has problems. Why does the cha n of causes have to come to an end? Perhaps the universe is eternal—endless in both directions. And even if there was a First Cause , why think it was God? But it doesn’t matter whether the argument works. (We’ll ask whether God exists in chapter 12.) The point is simply to see that Sarah reproduced its logic. “Here I am teaching my university students the argument for a First Cause,” Matthews wrote, “and my four-year-old daughter comes up, on her own, with an argument for the First Flea!” Some of the best philosophers in the world gather in surprising places— preschools and playgrounds. They debate questions about metaphysics and morality, even though they’ve never heard those words and can’t tie their shoes. They’re kids. And as University of Michigan professor of philosophy and law Scott Hershovitz shows, they can help grown-ups solve some of life’s greatest mysteries.