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I have two kids, and the youngest is just starting on the 'why?' phase. Its great fun! I treat it as a game to try and see how long I can keep on answering.
by luke_s 14y ago
I have two kids, and the youngest is just starting on the 'why?' phase. Its great fun! I treat it as a game to try and see how long I can keep on answering. As soon as I don't know the answer, I explain that I don't know (or perhaps that nobody yet knows) and discuss how we could find out.
One interesting thing I discovered - a surprisingly large number of things will either lead to physics or human psychology if you keep asking 'why?'. However I don't know if that reflects some deeper truth about the world, or just my bias in how I answer the questions.
- Michiel 14y ago> However I don't know if that reflects some deeper truth about the world, or just my bias in how I answer the questions. It's the same reason why you always end up on "Philosophy" if you're browsing Wikipedia and consistently follow the first link in each article. Here's the path for "Airplane": Airplane Fixed wing aircraft Aircraft Vehicle Motion (physics) Natural science Science Knowledge /* we know where this going... */ Fact Proof (truth) Argument Philosophy Try it yourself: http://www.xefer.com/wikipedia http://www.xefer.com/wikipedia
- sev 14y agoI had heard this before and just tried it...awesome! It's also interesting that philosophy links to existence (ontology) and that links back to philosophy.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Kronopath 14y agoI think that website cheats a little bit. The first link in "Science" is not "Knowledge" but "Latin", where it's describing the root of the word "Science". If you follow it properly, you'll find that even the article for "5 Whys" doesn't go to Philosophy: 5 Whys Technique Technology Tool Goal Animal Eukaryote Organism Biology Natural Science Science Latin Italic Languages Indo-European Languages Language Family Language Human Taxonomy Ancient Greek Greek Language Indo-European Languages // Infinite loop!
- esrauch 14y agoI think the wikipedia game specifically excludes words in parenthesis and italics. Following those rules you actually do get to Philosophy, and you also get to Philosophy from Indo-European Languages. Though there are some other cycles that exist.
- Michiel 14y agoThat path seems to go in the same direction, but then it diverges in Science, mostly due to the first sentence on that page, where [Latin] and [knowledge] are links: > Science (from [Latin] scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes [knowledge]... It happens again in Taxonomy, which otherwise would surely lead to Philosophy from the [classification] link: > Taxonomy (from [Greek]: τάξις taxis "arrangement" and Greek: νομία nomia "method"[1]) is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a [classification]. On our way to Philosophy we are constantly confronted with Latin and Greek concepts, because Rome and Greece are where many of the concepts in Philosophy originated.
- loup-vaillant 14y agoI think it is more revealing of your answers: for anything but the human ones, you take a materialistic approach, which eventually boils down to physics. Same principle for human matters, except we don't know yet how to close the gap between psychology and physics. Plus, you may be content with psychology if you believe there's some "magic" (like immaterial souls) between the two.
- matb33 14y agoI have two as well and the eldest just started the Whys a few weeks ago. Some of my parent-friends with slightly older kids complain about the endless Whys... Maybe I'll get to that same point of annoyance someday (I hope not), but so far I relish the challenge, hoping not to get stumped too quickly!