Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy

by The School of Life, Alain de Botton (Editor), Anna Doherty (Illustrator)

Overview

A fun and engaging book designed to harness and develop children's natural philosophical interest.

Children are born philosophers. Without prompting, they often ask questions about time, mortality, happiness and the meaning of life. This book addresses some of their more complex questions by introducing accessible philosophical concepts from 25 famous thinkers, contextualized in relatable everyday scenarios. Presented in an interactive question and answer format, this book takes us to meet leading figures of philosophy from around the world and from all eras-and shows us how their ideas continue to matter.

With discussions about some of the most vibrant and essential philosophical ideas of history, this accessible book functions as an ideal introduction to the subject as well as a charming way to open up conversations between children and adults about the biggest questions we all face.

• FEATURED AS ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST KIDS BOOKS OF 2018
• 26 WISE AND VARIED IDEAS: to inspire curiosity in young minds.
• INCLUDES THOUGHTFUL ACTIVITIES: to prompt conversations between adults and children.
• A CHILDREN'S INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY: inspired by great thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Plato.
• RELEVANT AND ENGAGING FOR KIDS 9 AND UP: chapters include: Maybe You're Just Tired, Learn to Say What's on Your Mind and Why You Might Feel Lonely.
• FULL COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANNA DOHERTY THROUGHOUT

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912891764
Publisher:	The School of Life
Publication date:	12/07/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	9 - 15 Years

About the Author

The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment.

The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.

The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 7 million YouTube subscribers, 389,000 Facebook followers, 174,000 Instagram followers and 166,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.

The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment. The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.

The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 5 million YouTube subscribers, 343,000 Facebook followers, 183,000 Instagram followers and 160,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.

Read an Excerpt

Philosophy is quite a mysterious subject that most people don’t know anything about. The average school doesn’t teach it, the average adult does not understand it, and the whole subject can seem odd and kind of unnecessary. That’s a real pity because in fact, philosophy has a lot to teach everyone, whatever their age. It might even be the most important subject you will ever study. This book wants to open the door for you— to show you what philosophy is all about, and how it can help you to understand life. The word ‘philosophy’ itself gives us a bit of a clue as to why the subject matters. It’s originally a word from Ancient Greek: the first part, philo, means ‘love’ (philately means the love of stamps). The second part, which comes from the word sophia, means ‘wisdom’. So, when you put the two parts together—philo-sophy—it literally means ‘the love of wisdom’. Philosophy helps us to live wise lives. But what does ‘wisdom’ mean? It’s not very obvious, at first. Is being wise just about being clever? No, it’s much more than that. It’s about being sensible, kind, calm and accepting of how life can sometimes be (which isn’t always perfect, and sometimes really quite hard). To get a better idea of what wisdom might involve, we can think about its opposite: not being wise. Imagine that your mum loses her keys. There are unwise ways she might deal with this. Maybe she starts shouting at other people: ‘Who moved my car keys?’ (even though probably no one did move them). Or maybe she gets into a panic and throws herself onto the sofa, moaning that she’s a complete idiot and that her entire life is ruined. Poor mum! What would a wiser mum do? Instead of ranting and raving, or starting to panic straight away, she would think: ‘Well, car keys do tend to get lost from time to time. I must have put them somewhere… maybe they’re in the coat I was wearing yesterday.’ She could ask (calmly) if you had seen them, and she might even laugh about how silly she was to forget where she’d put them. There are lots of situations where you can see the difference between unwise and wise ways of dealing with stuff that happens. There are lots of problems, both big and small, in everyone’s life—including yours, too, of course. We can never get rid of them entirely (though we try hard), but we can all get better at how we deal with our problems. We can try not to get angry so often, try to shout less, and try not to panic or hurt the people we love. Philosophy tries to help us act more wisely when facing the problems in our lives that we can’t do much about.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What Is Philosophy?

Know Yourself with Socrates

Learn to Say What’s on Your Mind with Ludwig Wittgenstein

It’s Hard to Know What We Really Want with Simone de Beauvoir

When Someone Is Angry Maybe It’s Not You Who Is Responsible with Ibn Sina

People Are Unhappy Not Mean with Zera Yacob

Don’t Expect Too Much with Seneca

Maybe You Are Just Tired with Matsuo Basho

What Is Normal Isn’t Normal with Albert Camus

No One Knows…with René Descartes

Politeness Matters with Confucius

Why We Procrastinate with Hypatia of Alexandria

Why It’s Hard to Know What You Want to Do with Your Life with Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Good Things Are (Unexpectedly) Hard with Friedrich Nietzsche

Weakness of Strength Theory with Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kintsugi with Buddha

The Need to Teach Rather than Nag with Immanuel Kant

The Mind-Body Problem with Jean-Paul Sartre

Why You Feel Lonely with Michel de Montaigne

The Meaning of Life with Aristotle

Why We Hate Cheap Things with Mary Wollstonecraft

The News Doesn’t Always Tell the Whole Story with Jacques Derrida

Art Is Advertising for What We Really Need with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Why Do Some People Get Paid More than Others? with Adam Smith

What’s Fair? with John Rawls

Shyness: How to Overcome It with Maimonides

Why Grown-up Life Is Hard with... Philosophy

List of Thinkers

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2019

What is philosophy, and why does it matter? The first book for children from the School of Life seeks to connect young readers to influential thinkers via self-help tropes, arguing that “philosophy helps us to live wise lives.” The volume distills “big ideas” from 25 heavy-hitting philosophers, mostly Western, into simple precepts, such as “Know Yourself” (Socrates), “Don’t Expect Too Much” (Seneca), and “Why We Procrastinate” (Hypatia of Alexandria). Each idea sits in a dedicated chapter, presented in a conversational style (“You might not know the word procrastinate, or maybe you’ve heard it before but are not sure exactly what it means. It’s quite an unusual word”) and explained with accessible scenarios (“Imagine you have something you need to do for school.... On Saturday you think, ‘I’ll do it Sunday’ ”). A colorful spread featuring a short biography of the philosopher referenced (“an idea from Simone de Beauvoir”) follows the sections, illustrated with Doherty’s wide-eyed, Quentin Blake–esque figures, and prompts suggest ways for readers to work through their concerns. A useful, if narrow, introduction to emotional intelligence via philosophical thought. Ages 9–12. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Featured in The Guardian's Best Children's Books of 2018: "Our pick was Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy – a plain-speaking guide to philosophers, what matters and how to deal with things. A nine-year-old of my acquaintance was struck by a Mary Wollstonecraft idea – “why we hate cheap things” – about rarity and value." - The Guardian

"The first book for children from The School of Life seeks to connect young readers to influential thinkers … The volume distills “big ideas” from 25 heavy-hitting philosophers … into simple precepts. Each idea sits in a dedicated chapter, presented in a conversational style … and explained with accessible scenarios. A useful … introduction to emotional intelligence via philosophical thought." – Publishers Weekly

“An ideal introduction to philosophy, as well as a charming way to open up conversations between adults and children about the biggest questions we all face ... Big Ideas for Curious Minds is especially and unreservedly recommended for family, school, and community library collections.” – Midwest Book Review

"An eye-opening introduction to philosophy for young readers … the book makes great ideas accessible without watering them down, showing confidence in its audience’s ability to wrestle with real questions. Within Big Ideas for Curious Minds, philosophy isn’t useless, boring, or just for grownups; it’s vibrant and full of wisdom for preteens and young teens, too." – Foreword Reviews

"Introspective, thoughtful kids ages 8 and up may find this book interesting to ponder. Parents nearing the end of patience for their tweens may want to leave this book lying around for browsing." – Youth Services Book Review

"A formidable introduction for a middle schooler interested in philosophy and a reference book that offers more than Wikipedia. Strongly recommended for middle school libraries looking for high quality nonfiction reference books." – School Library Journal

“The book itself is genius with an introduction to leading figures of philosophy from around the world from all eras… Topics such as ‘Why you feel lonely’, ‘Politeness matters’, ‘People are unhappy not mean’, and ‘The mind-body problem’ offer invaluable insights into philosophy in a way that our children can really get on board with.” – Laura, blogger at five little doves

"I absolutely LOVE this book!!!!! This guide to wisdom and happiness is beautifully written. The tone and voice are exceptional for kids and the lessons are IMPORTANT. Positive self-esteem and coping strategies are necessary to mental health and stability; something that is often overlooked with our young children. As an adult, it reinforced all of the problem solving and self-talk techniques that I am constantly reminding myself to practice day to day! Big Ideas for Curious Minds should be a required read for all children and parents. This world would be a better place if we could understand ourselves and communicate and empathize with others. Thank you for the experience." - Maria Conn, Read-Ability

"This book is a wonderful collection of philosophical concepts. It takes ideas and questions that children have and provides good explanations of how everyone can grapple with these philosophical concepts. This is definitely a book I would recommend for everyone who has an interest in learning some of the basics of philosophy in a simplified way.” - Kids Book Buzz

From the Publisher

09/01/2019

Gr 4–9—This accessible compendium features simple language and relatable examples. Twenty-six philosophers' key ideas are developed in three to four pages followed by a biographical sketch. Many are Western men like Socrates. Almost as many Western women chime in including Mary Wollstonecraft. Several essays are from the work of non-Western philosophers like Zera Yacob from Ethiopia and Ibn Sina from Iran. Examples motivate the concept being explained. The book's styling is pleasing, with tasteful, colored cartooning for the biographical profiles. Some essays end with a graphic organizer for making a list of "things I would like to know more about." There is a clear table of contents. The index has photos or sketches of each philosopher with their birth and death dates. The authors are British, but there are only a few minor differences with standard American English which most students would hardly notice. A librarian book-talking one of the questions (strategically choosing passages) would certainly hook some of the many tweens trying to figure out their social standing and larger questions of identity. Teachers could use these essays as writing prompts. VERDICT A formidable introduction for a middle schooler interested in philosophy and a reference book that offers more than Wikipedia. Strongly recommended for middle school libraries looking for high quality nonfiction reference books.—Amy Thurow, Westside Elementary School, Sun Prairie, WI

School Library Journal