The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us about Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life
by Alison Gopnik. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009
Most parents want to believe their children are brilliant. But how much do babies really understand about the world around them? In her provocative new book The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, asserts that babies and young children are in some ways “actually smarter, more imaginative, more caring, and even more conscious than adults are.”
These claims are bold, but Gopnik backs them up with dozens of empirical studies, many conducted in her own lab. At the heart of her argument is that children have evolved to be the “R&D department of the human species.” While adults are kept busy seeking food and avoiding danger, children are free to let their minds wander in the “useful uselessness of immaturity.” They can ask questions their parents would not conceive of, occasionally stumbling on solutions no adult could have taught them.
In this way, Gopnik claims, babies behave like little scientists. Toddlers build theories about the people and things around them not just by observation and imitation but also by running “experiments” on their surroundings—experiments their parents might not always appreciate, as they may be messy or disruptive. Comparing young children with researchers is a suggestive analogy, although one that doesn’t seem to capture the scope of childish curiosity.
So what is it like to be a baby? Gopnik ventures a guess. If adult attention is like a spotlight that can be directed at will, baby consciousness is more like a lantern beaming in all directions. She cites the work of psychologist John Hagen of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who found that younger children were better than older children at recalling playing cards they had been instructed to ignore. Adults who want a taste of this kind of open-ended awareness, Gopnik suggests, should try travel or meditation.
It may not seem intuitive that a three-year-old playing with her imaginary friend is “exercising some of the most sophisticated and philosophically profound capacities of human nature,” as Gopnik proposes. But even when Gopnik ventures to the limits of what can be inferred from behavioral research—taking on the human predilections for love, imagination and awe—she remains both credible and accessible. In the end one doesn’t need to know much about cognitive science to grasp the essence of her argument: if we could only get inside our children’s heads, we would learn something deep about ourselves.
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Reviews and Recommendations."
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Add CommentChildren always amaze with their responses and resourcefulness. You have to pay attention to see it. Getting inside your child's head? Yuck. How about being more patient and participatory with their inquiries? Truly "being" with a child (playing, listening and not judging) always provides opportunities to learn about oneself, if one is inclined. Actually, simply being aware on a moment by moment basis in life and reflecting on things that evoke emotions will provide plenty of opportunities to learn about oneself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientists look at a baby or child as, perhaps, a blob of protoplasm that has evolved from the animal kingdom and is experiencing "life" for the first time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Mystic sees the child as a soul, a Christ, a son or daughter of God, that evolved for eons in Spirit before ever taking its first incarnation and has had hundreds and even thousands of physical incarnations since the first. As an act of mercy, the records of past incarnations are not easily accessible to most people. We start each new incarnation with a clean slate, so to speak. Some advanced souls can remember some or all of their previous incarnations.
The karma (cyclic return of energy) of past incarnations can impose severe restrictions or it can portend genius and special abilities. Some are able to compose musical symphonies from the age of three because they have had previous incarnations where they built a storehouse of experiences, skills and mastery. Their karma may have limited them in other areas. It is not a reason to point a finger and say, aha. Some souls take on burdens that are not their own so that they can assist another. The man that was born blind and whom Jesus healed with clay and spittle was such an example. Neither he nor his parents had sinned, but he took on that condition so that the works of God could be manifest by Jesus.
The MIND is not the brain. The mind is one of four interpenetrating vehicles that the soul occupies. The four vehicles are the etheric, mental, emotional and physical bodies. The brain is like a computer that the mind utilizes. There is a Higher Mind and a lower mind. The heart has as many or more neurons than the brain. The etheric body has organs just as the physical body does. These organs are called chakras (wheels) as they are whirling vortices of spiritual energy and act as step-down transformers for the Energy of God to nourish the 4 vehicles. Within the physical heart is a chakra called The Secret Chamber of the Heart and within it is an Unfed Threefold Flame of Power, Wisdom and Love. This Unfed Flame is our Portal to the kingdom of heaven and contact point with our Higher Mind, that Mind that was also in Christ Jesus, and with angels, Archangels, and Spiritual Beings who have evolved as we have and have returned to God in the ritual of the Ascension. They now serve as our spiritual guides and teachers. There are also elemental beings of fire, air, water and earth.
Some young children are able to maintain contact with spiritual beings until they are "taught" that this is foolishness.