Philosophy for Children Part Ten: Bertrand Russell and the understanding of the surrounding world

Understanding the world around us helps us choose the right path in life, just as a map helps us find our way in a new place.

Bertrand Russell is one of the smart philosophers. He said something interesting about understanding the world around him. According to his belief, in order to live a better life, we must understand the issues around us.

Imagine you have a puzzle. To solve it, you need to know how the pieces fit together.

Understanding the world around us helps us choose the right path in life, just like using a map helps us find our way in a new place.

When you understand people’s feelings, you can be a good friend to them and make others happy.

Russell also looked at this issue in another way. He believed that in order to “exist”, we must understand ourselves and our purpose in life.

Just as a plant needs water and sunlight to grow, we also need understanding to grow.

Understanding and learning new things helps us live in a better way. Just like when we know how to ride a bicycle, the path is easier to travel.

We must always seek to learn new things, ask questions and explore the world around us in order to understand our surroundings.

This prominent mathematician and philosopher say in the book (Issues of Philosophy): “We obtain information (such as color, shape, etc.) through our five senses. Philosophers call these experiences sense data.

Imagine you and your friend are talking about a dish. You look at the dish from above and your friend from a distance.

You can see that each of you has a different description of the dish, even though you are both describing the same thing. Therefore, we conclude that people’s sensory data about a fixed thing can be different.

Think Station:

• What evidence is there to determine whether something is real or not?

A Short story:

Once upon a time there was a bat that saw everything around it upside down. This bat entered the forest for the first time. The wise owl decided to give the bat a welcome gift. He asked the baby elephant and mountain goat to go and see what the bat likes.

The bat told them that I would like to have an umbrella so that when it rains, my feet don’t get wet!

The baby elephant said: The umbrella does not let the head get wet, not the feet.

Bezkohi said: Everyone can make mistakes. It doesn’t matter. After all, he likes the umbrella.

They gave the bat a new umbrella.

The bat said: I am glad that you gave me an umbrella. Because right now I see a black cloud in the sky under my feet that wants to rain!

The baby giraffe laughed and said: The sky is up, not down!

The bat said another funny thing. He said that if it rains heavily, the water in the river will rise and my ears will get wet.

The baby lion growled: River water wets the feet, not the ears!

The bat continued: I can put a hat on my head, but the hat falls on the grass above me!

The rhinoceros said: The grass that is not high is low.

The young forest animals thought that the bat was completely crazy. They told the story to the wise owl. The wise owl looked at the young forest animals and said, I will test the bat with a few simple questions, then I will test you.

The owl asked the bat: Can you answer a few of my questions?

The bat said: Please

First question: Tell me what the shape of the tree is?

Bat said: Every tree has a trunk at the top and many leaves at the bottom.

The baby giraffe laughed: the tree has a trunk at the bottom and leaves at the top.

The owl said: The second question. Now tell me what is the shape of the mountain?

The bat said: The mountain has a slope at the top and a sharp point at the bottom!

All the young animals of the forest shouted that the bat has gone mad.

The owl said: Now the last question. I want everyone to answer this question except the bat. Have you ever wanted to look at things like a bat?

Then the owl asked all the animals to hang from the branches like bats.

Bezkohi said: The bat was right when he said that the top of the mountain is below!

The baby giraffe said: The trunk of the tree is high and its leaves are low!

The baby rhinoceros said: Look! The grass is above us. Where is the sky?

At the same time, it started to rain drop by drop.

The baby lion said: The water in the river is rising, my ears are getting wet.

The bat lent them his beautiful new umbrella so that they wouldn’t get wet.

Baby Giraffe said: Thank you, I apologize for saying that you are crazy

The other animals also said: We apologize too.

The bat laughed and said: Well, don’t play crazy.