Big Thinkers and Big Ideas: An Introduction to Eastern and Western Philosophy for Kids by Sharon Kaye

Big Thinkers and Big Ideas: An Introduction to Eastern and Western Philosophy for Kids Reviews

• 
  Miranda Reads

  4.5 stars

  
  
  Philosophy is both fun and good for your brain. By thinking about deep questions, anyone, including you, can be a philosopher.

  Philosophy often gets a bad rap among kids as something that's long, boring and useless.
  
  But it's not.

  True, discussion takes longer than just memorizing whatever your teacher says, but the time is well spent.

  This lovely little book is an introduction for both Eastern and Western philosophy geared towards children.

  Kids make excellent philsophers. Why? Kids are naturally curious about everything.

  This book tackles five big questions and explains the overall concept as well as different viewpoints of both ancient and modern philsophers.
  
  We begin with Questions About Reality (aka what is real) followed by Knowledge (aka how do you know if something is true).
  
  From there we hit Ethics and Logic (how can you be a good person and if x is true, then what else is true).
  
  Even though I'm older than the target audience, I really enjoyed this book!
  
  I loved reading about all of the philosophers - and I loved all of the diversity shown in the book. Philosophers from all ethnicities, races, eras and genders were depicted in this book.
  
  The illustrations were FABULOUS and really held my interest.
  
  All in all, I'm super pleased with this book and definitely recommend it for the kid (or adult) who wants a light introduction to philosophy!
  
  A huge thank you to Rockridge Press, Callisto Publisher's Club and Sharon Kaye for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
  
  
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• 
  Ell

  What a wonderful introduction to philosophy for fourth to sixth grade students! The conversational tone and informational composition is spot on for this age group. The discussion and debates promote critical thinking skills. This book is both highly educational and fun!
• 
  J

  This has been one book that I received as an ARC and have caught myself eyeing it constantly while now I felt it was the time to read it after my disastrous run-in with reincarnation. Could there be anything refreshing as renewing the mind after dumping trash on it unintentionally?
  
  First of all I understand that the book is geared towards a children's audience but it will also make a great starter philosophy book for curious adults. The writing is easy-to-understand, clear and given in a manner that won't be as confusing in the conflicting views as one normally finds such advances on a complex subject.
  
  Instead the book itself starts off with a section that introduces philosophy and its importance as well as why children can usually make for good philosophers. It then continues to explain to children the four categories that philosophy can be broken down into. And this is the path that starts the reader into the book for the remaining four sections each explore individually the four categories.
  
  What I love about these sections is that it gives the name of the philosophy category and a page to explain it. From there the rest of the section is made up on important questions that can be found under that category and each is given four pages - the 1st an introduction, the 2nd and 3rd for famous philosophical viewpoints, the 4th an activity that allows the reader to further explore the topic at hand. At the end of the book it gives the reader an idea on how you can learn to calmly debate the subjects while this is followed with a glossary to explain any unknown words.
  
  Although there is some mention of viewpoints with God, there are just as much viewpoints that discount God or put forth another contrasting though so for those who aren't wanting children to learn religion it shouldn't be a damper to allowing them to read it.
  
  Some famous names that can be found in this inclusive book are: Socrates, Ayn Rand, mythological resources from different tribes such as the Hopi and Kuba, Thomas Aquinas, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Theravāda Buddhism, Laozi and so much more.
  
  Although we didn't get through the whole book together this book has definitely charmed my husband and he says that it isn't leaving our house. And as such I would most definitely recommend it for teachers or caregivers who are wanting to explore the world of philosophy with their own curious children.
  
  **Please note I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review**
• 
  J.D. DeHart

  I was quite impressed with the clarity of writing and complex topics in this book. I loved the exploration of both terms and influential figures. I found the book useful as a reader, and also recommend it for a wide range of readers.
• 
  Ardyth

  My goal with this purchase was a read aloud to use as an intro to philosophy with our son (9yo, P4 aka 4th grade aka Form IIB). I was particularly drawn to this because the title indicates it isn't only Western Philosophy -- we live in Asia, and while understanding our familial cultural inheritance is important, so is connecting with our earthly neighbors.
  
  This book is a little bit too short & disjointed for us. Aesthetics are fine, I quite like them actually, but the content structure isn't going to work for our family...
  
  There are major sections (Reality, Knowledge, Ethics, Logic), but from a practical perspective it's the smaller 4-pages-each entries that are functionally relevant. The first page has the question in large font like a chapter heading ("Can we really know anything at all?") and three or four paragraphs expanding on the question. The next two pages introduce four to seven philosophers and what they thought.

  
  The ancient Chinese philosophers ZHUANG ZHOU and HUI SHI showed reverse skepticism. They were debating whether or not fish in a pond were happy. Hui Shi said he didn't think anyone could know. Zhuang Zhou snapped, "You're not me. How do you know that I don't know that the fish are happy?"
  
  The ancient Roman philosopher CICERO supported academic skepticism. This approach requires you to ask a bunch of people to explain their views on an issue. Follow each person's reasoning until it runs into contradictions. In the end, you should accept the view that is least contradictory -- and believe it as the best view rather than true knowledge.
  

  
  There are another three paragraphs like that in this one section about this one question. Then, a "Think On It!" page with prompts ("Make a list of three claims you are skeptical of. What makes you doubt them?")
  
  For our son and me, this is way too much content and way too little depth. YMMV.
  
  Keeping to the philosophy-with-kids theme, I also purchased
  Philosophy for Beginners and
  Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy, before settling on the latter. These three cover more or less the same topics, but each has a distinct presentation style and voice, so I'd suggest looking into all of them before choosing.
• 
  Dawn

  I chose to read this book after receiving a free copy from the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.
  
  Big Thinkers and Big Ideas is an excellent book for children, especially those who have a lot of questions. It will help them to think about things and look at things in a different way.
  
  I like the introduction which asks if we all see colors the same way. How do you know that your red is the same as my red? Maybe your red is my blue. Honestly, this is a question I’ve often contemplated because it can’t be answered.
  
  According to Big Thinkers and Big Ideas, there are 4 branches of philosophy: reality, knowledge, ethics, and logic. Those are also the 4 main chapters of this book, and each chapter looks at questions from each branch. Each question comes with an explanation but not an answer. It also explains the ideas on that subject by a philosopher and challenges the reader with a scenario to think about (called Think About It!). It will get adults to thinking too!
• 
  April Gray

  What an interesting book, and very accessible! The basics of philosophy are explained in a very engaging way, making the concepts much easier to digest. The bite-sized pieces of information, the "think on it" exercises to help the reader get into what they've just learned, the discussion of different views on ideas, etc., all come together well to make the intimidating subject of philosophy understandable for kids (and adults!). Definitely recommended!
  
  #BigThinkersandBigIdeas #NetGalley
• 
  Doni

  I like that she included Eastern and current philosophers. But she reduced the ideas to sound bites which made it easy to skim but hard to sink into.