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Philosophical questions to help parents and guardians provide their children with engaging opportunities to think, learn, and have fun at home.
Whilst limiting, the coronavirus lockdown provides many moments for families to engage in educational activities beyond formal schoolwork to enhance home-based learning for children of all ages.
Discussing philosophical questions is a great way to spend quality time and connect with your children.
Engaging young minds in philosophical thought experiments encourages them to expand the horizons of their thinking and develop their perspectives on what is important in life.
All sorts of home and family activities, such as mealtime, play, or even household chores offer precious opportunities to talk to your children. The more varied these conversations can be the more children can learn.
Find out more about the benefits of asking children philosophical questions:
- New questions to keep children thinking in 2022
In a time of global crisis, providing a space for children to express themselves and think critically can help support their wellbeing. The questions below aim to help open young minds to big questions and provide an opportunity for them to think beyond their day to day lives.
1. What is art?
- How do you feel when looking at a famous painting?
- How do you feel when engaging in art making?
- What is your best piece of art?
2. Could you be friends with a robot?
- Why do we have friends?
- How does talking to a friend make you feel?
- What would one have to do / be to become your friend?
3. Do animals feel emotions?
- Does your pet love you back?
- Can you tell if your pet is happy or sad? How?
- Does your pet know when you’re sad?
4. Would you rather have wings or fins?
- What would it be like to live in the sky?
- What would it be like to live in the ocean?
5. Would you like to never grow up?
- What are the things that only children can do?
- What will you miss when you are an adult?
- If you had to be stuck at a certain age forever, what age would you choose?
6. Would you rather be Spiderman or Batman?
- What are the things that you are really good at?
- When do you feel like being your best self?
- Are there any downsides to being a superhero?
7. What does it mean to be kind?
- How do you feel when doing kind things to others?
- How do you feel when others are doing kind things to you?
- What is one kind thing that you could to do someone right now?
Questions
We have prepared a list of questions to serve as a resource for children (and adults) to engage in philosophical thinking and look anew at the world around them. What will you discuss with your child today?
1. What makes us human?
- What is one thing that all people have in common? (think beyond bodies!)
- Can you name something?
- How are you different from your pet?
- What can you do that an animal can’t?
Activity suggestion
Let your child become a researcher and ask them to interview the family. Equip them with a pen and a notepad to interview family members with the same questions, and some more of their own (you could even reach extended family via the phone!). Compare and discuss the answers to see what they found.
2. Can a robot be human?
- What can your computer do that humans also can?
- Is there anything that humans can do that computers cannot? Name as many things as you can.
- Does your computer have feelings? What makes you think so? Can you be sure?
Activity suggestion
Draw or build a robot (you could use recycled materials) and ask your child to pretend it is alive. How would they treat it differently if it was alive?
Please share your children’s creations with us, we would love to see them.
3. Are animals persons?
- What does it mean to be a person?
- Is being a human and being a person the same thing?
- Why do we treat animals differently to humans? Should we treat them the same?
Activity suggestion
Together with your child, create a Declaration of Animal Rights. Include several short rules describing how animals should be treated.
Let your child lead the way.
Once finished, let them read the Declaration aloud to all family members and collect their signatures.
4. What is it like to be a bat?
- What is it like to be a cat/dog/dinosaur/table/chair?
- Could you recreate their lifestyle?
- Would you swap lives with a bat for a day? Forever?
Activity suggestion
Philosophical talk goes well with hands-on art.
Together with your child, create an origami superhero mask – there are plenty of tutorials online. We recommend Origami Batman Mask (instructables website).
You could also ask your child to draw a bat or even pretend to be one.
5. What is fairness?
- What does it mean to treat someone fairly?
- Can you give an example of a time when someone treated you unfairly? How about when you treated someone unfairly?
- Does fair mean equal? Are there situations where equal is not fair?
Activity suggestion
Give your child a packet of sweets and ask them to divide the sweets among the family members. Ask the child why they split the sweets the way they did. Challenge their decisions if they seem unfair.
Now repeat but make sure your child has an unequal number, see how they divide them unevenly and ask why they distributed them the way they did.
6. Are you your body or your mind?
- Would you rather keep your body or your mind?
- Would you still want your body without your thoughts?
- If you could switch minds with anyone, who would it be? Why?
Activity suggestion
This one is for the most daring parents. Try switching roles with your child for an agreed period of time – they become a parent and you become their child.
Observe each other as you act out your new roles. When the experiment is over, discuss with your child what they liked / disliked / enjoyed most about being a parent.
You could watch the film Avatar together.
7. Do we live in a simulation? (8+)
- How do you know that the world around you is real?
- How do you know that we aren’t inside a video game right now?
- How do you know you’re not dreaming right now?
Activity suggestion
For your next family movie night, watch Jumanji or Wreck it Ralph.
8. Can you trust your eyes? (8+)
- Do you believe everything you see?
- Can you think of a situation when your eyes have deceived you?
- Look at the night sky: are stars as close as they seem?
Activity suggestion
Together with your child, have a look at some optical illusions – try the famous duck-rabbit image for younger children.
9. Do animals have consciousness? (8+)
- Do animals have emotions?
- Does your dog miss you when you’re gone?
- How do you know what your pet wants?
Activity suggestion
If you have a pet, create a “pet diary” for your child to keep for a day or two (or however long they want).
Ask the child to note down changes in the pet’s behaviour and mood – together, reflect on why and when they occur and how you respond to them.
10. Can you control your mind? (8+)
- Where do your thoughts come from?
- Do you only think what you want to think?
- Is there a limit to our imagination? Can you imagine a new colour? What does it look like?
Activity suggestion
Try the classic experiment on thought suppression: ask your child not to think of a polar bear.
Immediately after, ask them what they are thinking about. Spoiler alert: it’ll be a polar bear.