What about democracy? We’ll think about it later on, since Rex thinks our family ought to be one. For now, I’ll just say: Democracy shouldn’t be a way of summing people’s selfish preferences. Voters ought to be public-spirited. They should seek to promote the common good—and impor- tant values, like justice and fairness—not their own individual interests. Don’t get me wrong. I believe in democracy, even when it doesn’t live up to that ideal. But I stand with Ian in thinking that more people acting selfishly is just more selfishness—and not a good way to make decisions.

The first is by extinguishing the light of scripture through misinterpretation. Hobbes sees the main abuse as teaching that the kingdom of God can be found in the church, thus undermining the authority of the civil sovereign. Another general abuse of scripture, in his view, is the turning of consecration into conjuration, or silly ritual. Most books about life in other countries fall into one of two categories: one, the travelog or two, the journey of self exploration that just happens to take place overseas (Tuscany, Provence.) These books are good (and often excellent) for what they are, but they never really give you a feel for what it is like to live in a country. When you find one that does (like Tim Macintosh Smith’s immortal Travels in Dictionary Land, or Stephen Clarke’s A Year in the Merde) they are something special. I don’t know why I was thinking about colors that day in kindergarten. But what I discovered—simply by thinking it through—was a limit on my capacity to read other people’s minds. I could learn a lot about my mother’s beliefs, motivations, and intentions just by watching the way she behaved. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t learn whether red looked to her the way it looked to me. But Hobbes’ theory did not end there: he wanted to find a way out of such an undesirable situation.Okay, I can hear you say: Matthews is yet another philosopher with aphilosophical kid. That doesn’t tell us much about kids in general. But Matthews didn’t stop with his kids. He talked to people who weren’t philosophers—and heard many similar stories about their kids. Then he started to visit schools to talk to more kids himself. He’d read stories that raised philosophical questions to the kids—then he’d listen to the debate that ensued. Cicero maketh honourable mention of one of the Cassii, a severe judge amongst the Romans, for a custom he had in criminal causes, when the testimony of the witnesses was not sufficient, to ask the accusers, cui bono; that is to say, what profit, honour, or other contentment the accused obtained or expected by the fact. For amongst presumptions, there is none that so evidently declareth the author as doth the benefit of the action. Neither would it carry any Imputation of Falshood . . . if . . . the same Object should produce in several Men’s Minds different Ideas at the same time; v.g. if the Idea, that a Violet produced in one Man’s Mind by his Eyes, were the same that a Marigold produces in another Man’s, and vice versâ. I think I would endure sensory overland in Egypt with its reliance on using noise, and loudly with lots of it, to communicate. I’m better in silence, even dog barks make my spine curl up on itself. I get road rage just driving in DFW, I’m pretty sure I’d be on the news for turning their traffic jams into a session of extreme bumper cars. We’ll return to this problem. As I said, it’s a window into some of the deepest mysteries about the world. Kids peer through that window all the time. Most adults have forgotten that it’s even there.

He did not see the worry. And this was before The Matrix came out, so I couldn’t appeal to the authority of Keanu Reeves to establish the urgency of the issue. After a few more minutes of muttering about brains and vats, I added, “The department has lots of logic classes too.” Lorenzo: If I survive long enough to get it! Right now it feels like my life is nasty, brutish, and short. This book will teach you how to transform the endless questions of childhood into the endless wonder of philosophy.” —Barry Lam, Host and Executive Producer, Hi-Phi Nation podcast, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College From the Publisher The fourth is by mingling with both these, false or uncertain traditions, and feigned or uncertain history. This considered, the kingdom of darkness... is nothing else but a confederacy of deceivers that, to obtain dominion over men in this present world, endeavour, by dark and erroneous doctrines, to extinguish in them the light... [17]

I love that question. It’s so simple—and subversive. Many economists think that public policy ought to maximize the satisfaction of people’s preferences. Some philosophers think so too. But Ian invites us to ask: Should we care about preferences if t hey’re simply selfish? There’s a challenge to democracy lurking here too. Suppose Ian’s mother put the question what to watch to a vo te? Is counting selfish kids a good way to settle the question? Hershovitz has two young sons, Rex and Hank. From the time they could talk, he noticed that they raised philosophical questions and were determined to answer them. They re-created ancient arguments. And they advanced entirely new ones. That’s not unusual, Hershovitz says. Every kid is a philosopher.

Leviathan, Critical edition by Noel Malcolm in three volumes: 1. Editorial Introduction; 2 and 3. The English and Latin Texts, Oxford University Press, 2012 (Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes). Rogers, Graham Alan John. Leviathan – contemporary responses to the political theory of Thomas Hobbes Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1995. Delightful . . . Witty and self-deprecating, Nasty, Brutish, and Short explores the wonder that young kids bring to their efforts to make sense of the world—and what grown-ups can learn from it.”— Barbara Spindel, Christian Science MonitorLife is but a motion of limbs. For what is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body, such as was intended by the Artificer? [9] Some of the best philosophers in the world gather in surprising places—preschools and playgrounds. They debate questions about metaphysics and morality, even though they’ve never heard the words and perhaps can’t even tie their shoes. They’re kids. And as Scott Hershovitz shows in this delightful debut, they’re astoundingly good philosophers.