kinderfilosofie; some of my philosophical thoughts as a kid: colors, discretization, dreams, units

[gusl]

http://www.kinderfilosofie.nl/ or in English (less content): http://www.kinderfilosofie.nl/engels/

Nice quotes from children
I am glad letters exist. Why? If there were no letters, there would be no sounds. If there were no sounds, there would be no words. If there were no words, we would not be able to think. And if we could not think, there would be no world.
Christine (from Gareth Matthews).

Who invented the world?
Who do you think?
I think the first people, because they invented language as well.
Sosha, 5 years old. Amsterdam

Following the cut, my own ideas, which I wrote on my website around 2000/2001.

Children and Philosophy

As a child-philosopher, I had my share of interesting ideas. Lately, I was pleasantly surprised that my 12-year-old brother was having the same thoughts.

Issues that inspire children to philosophize:

• Colorblindness
• Different Units: Metric vs. British
• Pixels in the computer screen
• Frames of a camcorder

 

Colorblindness

To me, RED is a color. I cannot describe it accurately to somebody else. I know that blood is RED. [implicit: color is an objective concept]
But maybe you see RED things as BLUE. In particular, you see blood as BLUE, but you call it RED because when you were a baby, everybody pointed to things which you saw as BLUE and told you: "THIS IS RED". So, in your personal language, the things which look bluish, you call RED.
This condition might afflict my best friend, with whom I share many things. And yet, I wouldn't know. And he wouldn't know.

Maybe I am the one who sees RED things as BLUE. Maybe I am the odd one out! (emotional reaction)
[this emotional reaction causes the philosopher to re-evaluate his views: if his RED isn't the real RED, he may begin to appreciate subjectivity]

Hmm... So there there is no such thing as red and blue, only our perception of it... [subjectivity]
So nothing exists outside of our perception. [generalization]

Therefore, it makes no sense to talk about what is unknowable, since unknowable things will never be in our perception.

However, it works to label things RED, BLUE, etc. It's useful language. This is because, for each individual, whatever was RED will remain RED and whatever was BLUE will remain BLUE... So there is a consistency over time... Perception is a function of the individual, but it is constant with time.

But maybe consciousness is not unknowable, and maybe it is possible for me to perceive exactly what you perceive, with some futuristic technology. If this turns out to be the case, then there might be such a thing as RED, as it is typically perceived (or maybe everybody's perception of red is wildly different, in which case there is no point in giving any objective meaning to RED).

Pixels in the computer screen
Maybe you and I and all physical things, really are made of pixels, just like in the computer screen. They're really small, though. Again, we don't realize it, just like the fish don't realize that they are in the water...
All our atoms are snapped to this grid...
Hey... Maybe the rational numbers were just fine for Physics...

Frames of a camcorder
Maybe time is discrete. Maybe life is like a movie in a camcorder, and my movements aren't continuous. Or maybe our perception is like a camcorder, even though time really is continuous... So maybe, if I'm fast enough, I can hit my sister in this window of time between two snapshots, and she will never know...

A dream within a dream (Chuang Tzu)
I once dreamed I was a butterfly.
But maybe, I still am a butterfly who is dreaming of being human.

Life is a play (samsara)
Maybe people are born several times, and we all have had several births.
But we don't remember because, each time we are born, we temporarily lose all our memory (until we die again).
We are unwilling (some Hindus would say willing) actors in this play.
Underlying Suggestion: nothing is very serious, since life is only a play.

SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!
and THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY UNCHECKABLE. What do we do about this? What lesson can we learn from considering all these possibilities? What is your conclusion?

I will take suggestions for Movies that explore these philosophical possibilities.
 

Different Units: Metric vs. British
There is nothing fundamental about a meter, or a foot, or a pound or a kilogram. They are arbitrary units, used to measure things. Hopefully, all kids come to realize this at some point.