8/18/09

My Philosophical Kids

My kids consider it a fate worse than death to grow up and be a philosopher, or at least they tell me so (possibly to get my goat). If that fate awaits them, it's going to be their own damn fault. They really do ask some great questions. First one kid brings up this scenario: if someone cuts off their own finger and then wants to have it reattached, does insurance pay for it? Should they have to pay for it? A half an hour later, the other starts asking if I'd recognize them if they turned into a cat. Never fear (I should tell them both): school starts next week and all philosophical thinking will be drummed out of them. (Boy--all those plurals for gender neutrality are ugly, but sometimes you just have to deal with it. My daughter doesn't want it to be known which question was hers.)

5 comments:

s. wallerstein said...

Good for your kids. They'll find their own place in life or discover that finding a place in life is an illusion. Having a philosopher-mother, they begin by questioning philosophy, which is what philosophy is all about: questioning.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps your kids get it from you. Did you ask them if you could quote them? Just sayin' ;-)

Faust said...

Tell them that according to Plato they'll have to wait till they are 30 before they can decide whether or not they are philosophers.

rtk said...

Chopped finger and money: violence and power. Kittens: nurturing. And you wouldn't say which was boy and which girl. Ha!

Jean Kazez said...

anonymous: ;-) back atcha

Faust, oh good, a way to torment them.

rtk: no comment