I had a terrific chat with Thomas yesterday in the car on
the way to school. It started with him saying the difference between humans and
animals is that humans drive cars. I engaged the Socratic method, and he
abandoned that idea after I pointed out Gramper in Iowa was born around the
time cars were being invented, and asked if people born before then were
animals since they didn’t have cars. After a few more questions and answers, we
were onto the use of tools and really hit the sweet spot. I asked him what is
the difference between a bear sitting on a log and a person sitting on a log? Apparently, a bear just sits
on a log, but a human knows what a chair is and is using the log as a chair. And
so, Thomas now tells me that the difference is the way humans and animals think about things. I reckon he is in pretty good company on that track.
"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself"
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself"
~ DH lawrence
And no, its not a perfect answer. And yes, my questions were leading, but it’s still an position that one could find thrown around an under-grad philosophy class and I am very proud of the way he reached
that conclusion. He was willing to abandon ideas when they were shown to be false
(using cars = human) and moved to new conclusions supported by his considered answers
to the questions I was asking.
Then he wanted to know if the Hulk is stronger than
Superman. Fair enough, some mysteries are more important than others for a 6yrs old.
BTW - The 1st person that correctly identifies the source and relevance of the title for this one wins 5 internets.
