Skip to main content

New book out in October - Really, Really Big Questions About Me


Philosophy and science stuff for kids, following up my Really Really Big Questions About Life The Universe and Everything book. It's endorsed by the Science Museum so it must be jolly good, right?

You can order it on the amazon websites etc.

Webpage for book is here. Her's the blurb:
What am I made of? How do I know I’m real? Will I still be the same person at eighty? Following up on the success of Really, Really Big Questions, and Really, Really Big Questions About God, Faith, and Religion here comes an entertaining book that explores the important, weird, and sometimes metaphysical questions that children have about themselves. From the physical—Why do I like chocolate? How does my brain work? —to the philosophical—Is my memory what makes me? Is there life after death? —this book takes on the deeper questions that come with growing self-awareness. Throughout it all, humorous writing, funky art, and fun features like optical illusions, amusing stories, quotes, and mind-teasers keep it light and make this philosophic journey unforgettably interesting.

Comments

daz365 said…
My 8yr old daughter loved the last "Really Really Big Questions" so we're looking foward to this.
September 3, 2012 at 8:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Re: J. Xj
Who is he talking to? Is it time to remove internet beads from the assylum?
September 5, 2012 at 3:49 AM
Anonymous said…
Re: J. Xj
Who is he talking to? Is it time to remove internet beads from the assylum?
September 5, 2012 at 3:51 AM
Anonymous said…
Re: J. Xj
Who is he talking to? Is it time to remove internet beads from the assylum?
September 5, 2012 at 3:52 AM
Anonymous said…
Stephen, Why do you think Philosophy hasn't taken off in UK schools as part of the national curriculum and what do you think should be done to change this?
September 25, 2012 at 9:49 PM
Stephen Law said…
Well there's plenty going on but it's not woven into the curriculum. That would require government to put it there.

There are some obvious reasons why government might shy away from that - getting children to think critically and independently about e.g. religion is not to everyone's taste.

To get government support for philosophy in schools, we just need to raise awareness, and direct them in particular to the results of pilots studies, such as that conducted by University of Dundee. Plus their own Ofsted inspector's reports.
September 26, 2012 at 6:59 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Evil God Challenge and the "classical" theist's response

On another blog, FideCogitActio, some theists of a "classical" stripe (that's to say, like Brian Davies, Edward Feser) are criticisng the Evil God Challenge (or I suppose, trying to show how it can be met, or sidestepped). The main post includes this: In book I, chapter 39 , Aquinas argues that “there cannot be evil in God” (in Deo non potest esse malum). Atheists like Law must face the fact that, if the words are to retain any sense, “God” simply cannot be “evil”. As my comments in the thread at Feser’s blog aimed to show, despite how much he mocks “the privation theory of evil,” Law himself cannot escape its logic: his entire argument requires that the world ought to appear less evil if it is to be taken as evidence of a good God. Even though he spurns the idea that evil is a privation of good, his account of an evil world is parasitic on a good ideal; this is no surprise, though, since all evil is parasitic on good ( SCG I, 11 ). Based on the conclusions of se...
446 comments
Read more

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen...
159 comments
Read more

Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism refuted

Here's my central criticism of Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN). It's novel and was published in Analysis last year. Here's the gist. Plantinga argues that if naturalism and evolution are true, then semantic epiphenomenalism is very probably true - that's to say, the content of our beliefs does not causally impinge on our behaviour. And if semantic properties such as having such-and-such content or being true cannot causally impinge on behaviour, then they cannot be selected for by unguided evolution. Plantinga's argument requires, crucially, that there be no conceptual links between belief content and behaviour of a sort that it's actually very plausible to suppose exist (note that to suppose there are such conceptual links is not necessarily to suppose that content can be exhaustively captured in terms of behaviour or functional role, etc. in the way logical behaviourists or functionalists suppose). It turns o...
151 comments
Read more