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The Philosophical Baby
3/5. A book at the intersection of child development and philosophy. How do babies (she generally means 1-3 year olds) develop a sense of morality? How about love? What is it like, cognitively, to be a baby? More interesting than satisfying. Lots of big ideas and big questions here, and a notable lack of meaty answers. This is admittedly partly the fault of the data pool – there are lots of experiments to talk about, but they are generally small and observational and rely on heuristics like "babies look longer at novel things or actions" which are probably true in general but not exactly ironclad. The chapter on the development of love was particularly unsatisfying, as she seemed to treat attachment and love as synonymous, which seems incorrect to me.
Worth Reading, though, particularly for the chapters on pretending and morality which convinced me solidly of something I've suspected for a while: that toddlers are far more accurate at understanding reality than they are generally given credit for. See, e.g., that three-year-olds reliably understand the difference between rules – we sit still at snack time at pre school – versus moral codes – we don't hit – and are capable of explaining why rules vary but morals don't.
3/5. A book at the intersection of child development and philosophy. How do babies (she generally means 1-3 year olds) develop a sense of morality? How about love? What is it like, cognitively, to be a baby? More interesting than satisfying. Lots of big ideas and big questions here, and a notable lack of meaty answers. This is admittedly partly the fault of the data pool – there are lots of experiments to talk about, but they are generally small and observational and rely on heuristics like "babies look longer at novel things or actions" which are probably true in general but not exactly ironclad. The chapter on the development of love was particularly unsatisfying, as she seemed to treat attachment and love as synonymous, which seems incorrect to me.
Worth Reading, though, particularly for the chapters on pretending and morality which convinced me solidly of something I've suspected for a while: that toddlers are far more accurate at understanding reality than they are generally given credit for. See, e.g., that three-year-olds reliably understand the difference between rules – we sit still at snack time at pre school – versus moral codes – we don't hit – and are capable of explaining why rules vary but morals don't.