Therefore, when we discuss children's philosophy books, we must first make clear the difference between philosophy and science. After all, a child with a blank social cognition begins to contact books, and the first thing he sees is certain factual knowledge. Will durant distinguished science from philosophy in The Story of Philosophy (Life, Reading and New Knowledge Joint Publishing Company 1997 1 1 Edition);
Philosophy answers a question that science cannot answer: What is truth? What is the essence of the mind? What is a person? What is thinking? What is justice? What is the value? Wait a minute. With the increase of life experience, it plays an increasingly important role in everyone's thinking.
So where is its connection with children?
When children have no cognitive ability, they need adults to teach them the truth of life, which comes from adults' simple philosophical thinking.
When children enter the collective life, they begin their own socialization process, and contradictory voices gradually appear in the simple world. Why can XX be a leader? Why can we eat animals but not people? Why is he a social worker when I am introverted and shy? Questioning these questions is the process of forming personal way of thinking and values.
When children's psychology tells us that you should respect children and let them dare to express different ideas, then repeatedly exchanging opinions and objections with children is the process of philosophical debate and the skill of getting along with children on an equal footing.
Different from popular science knowledge such as Mars, earthquake and world history, there are some differences among children's philosophy books because of the speculative nature of philosophy itself. Children will ask specific questions when they are very young, but they will not become interested in philosophy itself too early. Many children like to read chicken soup for the soul before and after puberty, and then take the initiative to think philosophically.
Propaganda sentences commonly used in children's philosophy reading materials.
If parenting is a kind of self-practice, then the philosophical reading for children is probably the best practice book for parents. After all, parents are children's first teachers. Below, we divide eight books on children's philosophy into two age groups, and compare their contents to see why Plato called philosophy "lovely entertainment".
6- 10-year-old children's philosophy reading: every question raised by children is related to philosophy.
I am me, German Artists Union, Tian Tian Publishing House, June 2020.
The book "I am me" is unique in that it is a collection of works about "self", which brings together many children's understanding of "normality", which is why this book looks a little messy.
Small authors usually express their "abnormality" and their understanding of "abnormality" through cartoons, interviews, photography and collage. The boy carrying a backpack went to study in France from Germany. Because no one in France carries a backpack, he becomes a different kind. At first, he felt terrible, but before long, many people also carried backpacks, and the boy became a fashion leader. Short stories like this provide readers with many real cases.
I am my inner page.
If philosophy pursues absolute rationality, then the more samples we see, the more we can treat those "perverts" in prejudice lightly.
96 strange questions of children, written/drawn by Tomiungeer [France] for young readers | Wen Hui Publishing House, August 2020.
Considering children's understanding ability, children's philosophical reading books are mostly philosophical answers to several parallel questions, and will not go too far vertically. Tomi Ungerer's 96 Strange Questions of Children is such a book, and it points out that there are 96 questions in the title.
96 strange questions for children.
96 questions are from a column in a French magazine called Philosophy by Tomiungeer. The children asked questions and Wingel answered them. Therefore, these answers are more colloquial than books written by philosophers for children, and more personal with Wingel. Reading is first attracted by children's questions, and then impressed by Wingel's wise answers.
Children Thinking about the World, by Anne-Sophie Chirade/Gwenina Bly, by Pascal Lemaistre, by Oscar Bernifi, by Bayacho | Zhejiang Children's Publishing House, 20 18 1.
The children who think about the world, a philosophical reading, is also a magazine column. It regards parents as educated and helps parents guide their children through these philosophical questions and answers. So the preface says "to adults who are troubled by problems"
Divided into two books, it basically covers most philosophical topics. Each topic is not long, with a simple cartoon. As mentioned above, different philosophical books and different people write different answers. Let's take the work topics of these two books as an example.
Text map of children thinking about the world.
When children think about the world, they ask: Why should we work?
The answer is: when we grow up, we need to be self-reliant. Some efforts can be rewarded. When we enter the society, we will be relieved to do our job well. People who don't do things will be looked down upon by others. It's fun to do what you like ... everyone works for a reason and doesn't work for a reason.
In 96 Strange Questions for Children, the child asked: Why do adults always say that they have no time?
Text of 96 Strange Problems of Children
Wingel's answer is: because their time is sucked away by work. Think about it. When mom and dad get home after a hard day, they still have to prepare dinner, pack things, clean the room and put the baby to bed. Sometimes they don't even have time to sing a nursery rhyme or lullaby ... I think if parents can take their babies to the workplace more often, maybe everything will be different.
Do you see different answers, but do you think they all make sense?
I can think of it, painted by Sophie Philo [France]/Jean-Charles Paget [France], by Dorothy de Montefrei [France] and by Soledad Blavy, Red Cloak | CITIC Publishing Group, 20 18 10.
The book I Can Think is similar in arrangement to Children Thinking about the World, but it is more comic plot. There are four kinds of small animals in the cartoon: pigs, cats, birds and wolves. All kinds of things they encounter in their daily life are presented in the form of dialogue. For the questions raised by small animals, they did not give the final answer, but continued to guide thinking by asking questions.
I can think inside pages.
All philosophical questions have no end, and great conversation leads to wisdom, which requires people to constantly reason, not just list and exchange views. Therefore, older children will emphasize the role of debate when they read philosophy.
10 or above children's philosophy reading: growing up means there is no standard answer.
If I take out every question in the catalogue of "Children Thinking about the World", I will think, and I can form this set of "The Charm of Thinking". We have mentioned one of them, "What has Football taught us". On the issue of sports, we can know more than just the Olympic Games theme book list.
The charm of thinking, [France] Pierre Pei Ju/[France] hot Naville Fu Freys, etc. , Guangxi Science and Technology Press, March, 20021year.
This set of books explains each question in detail, and some of them are like abbreviated versions of philosophy textbooks, which are of course much more interesting than textbooks. It is also unique in that it contains several themes that are not common in other philosophical books: storytelling involves historical and fictional narration, history and memory, and personal narration of one's own story; What has football taught us? The social function of football is analyzed. "What can you gain from seeing the scenery" discusses the relationship between the whole and the part; Is dancing also a kind of thinking? Like football, the artistic form of dance is analyzed separately.
Another set of books, The Enlightenment Book of Children's Philosophy, was published earlier and has covered almost all philosophical topics.
Enlightenment reading of children's philosophy, by Bridget Rabe Michel Puech and by Jacques azzam, Republic of China | Guangxi Normal University Press, 2011July.
Its writing method is to provide a case first and then analyze the case. The process of analysis sets various conditions and then gives various explanations. The conclusion becomes: true is not necessarily true, false is not necessarily false, adults are not necessarily adults, children are not necessarily children, ugly is not necessarily ugly, and beauty is not necessarily beautiful. It fits that sentence very well: do you think what you think is what you think? Reading has a kind of reasoning pleasure that you will never see the standard answer.
Inside page of children's philosophy enlightenment reading.
In the chapter "True or False" above, it is certainly wrong to lie, but sometimes it is necessary to lie. In social interaction, you think a person is ugly, but you can't tell him so truthfully. Although I lied, if I tell the truth, it will hurt more than lying. Also, fake things can inspire people, but if you take all the fake things you see on TV as true, it will be terrible.
A little philosophy, by Michel Puech [France], painted by Pascal Lemaistre [France], read Xiao Ku | Xinxing Publishing House, 2065438+March 2009.
A little philosophy does not try to cover all philosophical topics like the two books we mentioned earlier. It only chose 9 topics and 9 books, namely: walking, love, eating, explanation, shame, speaking, wanting, discarding and life. The author Michel Puech is one of the authors of children's philosophy enlightenment books.
Discarded inner pages.
Every book will feel bleak when it is opened for the first time, but the later you read it, you will find that it is gradually moving to a certain depth, like wine with sufficient stamina. When it comes to throwing away, we will think of throwing away garbage and useless things, but the author will slowly say throwing away boyfriends/girlfriends, throwing away opponents, throwing away violence between people and things, and violence between people. This way of talking about philosophy breaks away from the textbook system and becomes the author's association and redefinition of a certain theme, with the emphasis on philosophical imagination.
Little Plato series, [France] Ronan Ocalan, etc. , [France] Donas Yan Mary, etc. , 99 Scholars | People's Literature Publishing House, 2065438+March 2009.
Finally, we end with this little Plato series.
It is a set of stories about philosophers, with 10 books and 10 philosophers, namely: Rousseau's opera, Epicurus' laughter, Einstein's inspiration, Leibniz's beautiful world, Socrates' holy death, Heidegger's graveyard trip, Professor Kant's dream day and diogenes's.
But it is not about the life of 10 philosophers, but a short story written according to their famous views, in which the philosopher will appear.
Take the book The Oath of Marx as an example, starting with the tragic story of a little weaver in Silesia. After witnessing everything, Marx decided to use the rest of his life to overthrow the slavery of mankind. Later, he met a Mr. Das Kapital, and Marx worked with him to settle the account of "exploitation".
This way of weakening the philosopher's life and integrating the philosopher's point of view into the story makes this set of books less preaching and more interesting to read.
The inside page of Marx's oath.
The title map comes from the children's book I Am Me published by Tian Tian Publishing House.
Editor | Shen Chan
Proofreading | Li Shihui