How do you explain what Philosophy is to an 8 year old?

[outlandish]

Recently I was asked by my 8 year old son what Philosophy is, and what a Philosopher is. I was really stumped. How would you explain this to an 8 year old?

Kids are great at asking challenging questions.

[cn03]

Philosophy is trying to answer questions that cannot be answered.

[Artsu]

Try and find a philosophical question that the 8 year old is interested in. My dad used to tell me about paradoxes.

At 13 I was interested in questions like free will, reality, morality. At 8 I was into Lego and Pokemon.. but I guess, ask the kid if they know what right and wrong is, and how they would describe it. If he tries to put morality into words, he is being a moral philosopher.

Then you can also turn to metaphysics. What is the difference between dreaming and real life?

Philosophers try to answer these questions and more.

[cn03]

@Artsu That's a practical way to convey it, I like it.

[integral]

@outlandish Ask him fun philosophical questions and explore possible answers with him. He will then develop some intuition for it.

[RedLine]

You have individual knowlege (science): physics, language, psychology, etc

 

If you need to use several fields of knowlege to explain something you are doing phillosophy. 

 

Basically everything that is not science, or encompasses more than one science, is phillosophy.

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by RedLine

[Leo Gura]

Simple:

• Love of wisdom
• Love of questioning reality

Why does anything exist?

How do we know anything for certain?

What is the point of life?

If God exists, who created God?

What is the color red?

What makes mathematics true?

If I turn my back on the moon, does it still exist?

Why does war happen?

Even... What is philosophy?

Etc.

Every kid will understand such questions. So philosophy is simply the serious pursuit of such questions.

[Quader]

The fact you were stumped at such a question in order to convey it simply to your child may be a good thing to actually convey to him. Be honest that philosophy is so good that even at your age you have a hard time explaining it all.

[Epikur]

Question that are too hard for science are philosophical questions

[Leo Gura]

Science is a branch of philosophy.

[outlandish]

Great answers thanks everyone!

[JosephKnecht]

Philosophy is a school of thought in which a thinker thinks about thoughts. 

That is what I think.  

[Fadl]

On 10/8/2020 at 10:24 PM, outlandish said:

Recently I was asked by my 8 year old son what Philosophy is, and what a Philosopher is. I was really stumped. How would you explain this to an 8 year old?

Kids are great at asking challenging questions.

Philosophy is related to thinking, make him think, ask him some questions, simple ones, like why do you go to school every day? Then discuss his answer by asking more questions… you both will have fun!