On Philosophical Discussions with a 4 Year Old

I guessed that Counting Blessings was writing a blog post when she came into lil'daddy's bath last night to ask him a few questions about how lil'bro knew "everything" and when he would start to forget things. Usually lil'daddy brings the subject up and we do our best to try to learn more of what exactly he believes without leading him with questions or otherwise influencing him.

Towards the end of the exchange between lil'daddy and mommy, I joked to the effect that lil'bro has to learn to talk to us before he forgets the secret of life. Lil'daddy gave me a very quizzical look. When Mommy then asked if he knew the secret of life, Lil'daddy very assuredly replied, "Yes". We were very curious as to what he'd say it was. We waited in anticipation and after several seconds of silence, mommy asked, "Can you tell us the secret of life?" "No! ...It's a secret!", he quipped. Mommy and I went hysterical, soon followed by lil'daddy.

I have a feeling the secret is in there, in both lil'daddy and lil'bro. :)

Big bro's philosophy on babies & knowledge

Since Lil Bro was born, Big Bro has held steady on his belief that babies are born knowing everything. I'm not sure where he developed this idea, it seems to have just arisen with him. He's apt to say that Lil Bro knew everything, but that he's slowly forgetting it. I asked 'at what point do babies start to forget'? According to Big Bro, it's almost immediately, as soon as they are no longer newborns (he defines a newborn as a baby with an umbilical cord, once the cord falls off, one is no longer a newborn and graduates to a 'baby').

This reminded me of discussions over Plato's beliefs during my college philosophy classes. I had to go back to look a few things up: 

Innatism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that the mind is born with ideas/knowledge, and that therefore the mind is not a 'blank slate' at birth, as early empiricists such as John Locke claimed. It asserts therefore that not all knowledge is obtained from experience and the senses.

In other words, there are some things that we just know, maybe by faith, maybe by instinct, maybe by the collective experience of humanity.

I'm fascinated that Big Bro plugged into this idea...

... the front of National Museum of the Native American. This building was just too cool! when I get home, I'll see if I can add some links. (*edit* links added)

Washington Redux

We're baack!

Big Bro & Lil Bro -- Recent Pics

Make a Smilebox scrapbook