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The Roots of Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

John White
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Extract

Some people think that the impulse to philosophise begins in early childhood: Gareth Matthews, for instance, in his Philosophy and the Young Child (1980). His book begins ‘TIM (about six years), while busily engaged in licking a pot, asked, “Papa, how can we be sure that everything is not a dream?’” ‘Tim's puzzle,’ he tells us, ‘is quintessentially philosophical. Tim has framed a question that calls into doubt a very ordinary notion (being awake) in such a way as to make us wonder whether we really know something that most of us unquestioningly assume we know.’

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 33 , September 1992 , pp. 73 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1992

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References

1 I am grateful to Professor Matthew Lipman for his kindness and generosity of spirit in sending me a copy of Kitchener's critical discussion of his and Gareth Matthews’ work.