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Friday, December 12, 2008

Philosophy on a Friday

Pippi - on observing the full moon: "How do we know that the moon is round and not shaped like a potato chip or something?"

Me: "Observation. We can see it. It's round."

Pippi: "But what if it's not?"

Me: "But it is. The first step in scientific discovery is observation. You look at something and see what properties it has."

Pippi: "But in philosophy they say your eyes can deceive you."

Right. So maybe the moon is just a big potato chip.

3 comments:

kristen said...

This is right along the lines of Leo wanting to know how you know what color something is and is that the same color everyone else sees.

christine M said...

Kris, maybe Pippi and her uncle can have a long philosophical discussion sometime. That could be really amusing.

Vivian Mahoney said...

You're going to have your work cut out for you in the years ahead.

Love Pippi's reasoning, quick thinking and curiosity! You're doing a great job.