Description

Why is a horse called a horse and not a giraffe or a flapdoodle? Why did Plato go from being called Aristocles, after his grandfather, to being called Plato, which means muscleman? Where do any names come from? In this delightful book, readers young and old will explore with Plato and ponder why anything or anyone has a name at all. Do readers know where their own name comes from?

At its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers! Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life’s “big questions,” however strange or impractical. This book introduces children—and curious grown-ups—to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Descartes to Socrates, Einstein, Plato, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging—and often funny—story that presents basic tenets of philosophical thought alongside vibrant color illustrations.

My apologies that the language in some of the pictures are French. The English ones were not available and, in my quest to provide you with enough information to grasp the essence of the book, I opted to include some picture with French wordings.

Book 2: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Vienna, 1714: Late in life, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the universal genius of his time, puts down his pen and declares his description of the universe to be complete. In the evening, he sits in his study room among letters, books, and manuscripts as his young friend Theodor comes for a visit. Theodor is bothered by one question: Why is there evil? And why do people commit crimes? With an example from ancient Greek mythology, Leibniz develops his theory about the best of all possible worlds. With this vivid “story within a story” Jean Paul Mongin successfully imparts the complex philosophical ideas of Leibniz to young readers.

Book 3: Isaac Newton

We know Isaac Newton as a brilliant polymath, inventor of the calculus and the person who first began to suss out the fundamental laws of physics. But in this delightful account of his life and thought aimed at young readers, we learn oh, so much more about Newton and his secret life . . . on the dark side of the moon.

Newton and the Club of Astronomers invites us on a wildly imaginative journey to join Newton as he meets with the famous (and definitely secret) Club of Astronomers in their clubhouse on the hidden side of the moon. At the Club’s meetings, we learn about Newton’s discoveries and understand his pioneering thoughts about gravity, planetary orbits, and much, much more. Whimsical and fanciful, yet firmly rooted in Newton’s actual ideas and discoveries, Newton and the Club of Astronomers is the perfect introduction for curious children to one of the great figures of scientific history.

Book 4 : Kierkegaard… Desperately Unhappy

Once upon a time, in a coral palace at the bottom of the sea, hidden from human eyes, there lived a princess with a fish’s tail. Her parents adored her, and she was engaged to the most tender and beautiful of all the mermen, and she could have been the happiest of all the mermaids. But the little princess was desperately unhappy …

This book takes a “leap into the absurd,” exploring the existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard from the bottom of the sea, through the eyes of the princess with a fish’s tail. She must look deep into the world of the spirit to find out what it all means.