Philosophy
The love of wisdom
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What Is Philosophy?
Philosophy means "love of wisdom" in ancient Greek. It's the practice of asking the biggest questions humans can ask: What is real? What is true? How should we live? Unlike science, which studies the physical world, philosophy explores ideas themselves.
Today's Spotlight
Pythagoras for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the universe has a hidden language?
Read ArticleWords of Wisdom
"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life."โ Plato
"The unexamined life is not worth living."โ Socrates
"And when he remembers his first habitation... do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change?"โ Plato
"All men by nature desire to know."โ Aristotle
Why Philosophy Matters
Philosophy teaches critical thinking, the skill of examining ideas carefully before accepting them. It helps you spot bad arguments, ask better questions, and think for yourself.
All Philosophy Articles
Allegory of the Cave for Kids
Imagine you have lived your entire life inside a dark room, watching shapes move across a wall.
Aristotle for Kids
Have you ever looked at a seashell, a beetle, or a star and wondered why it is exactly the way it is?
Confucius for Kids
Can a person's character be more powerful than a king's army?
Epicureanism for Kids
If you could design a perfect day, what would it look like?
Ethics for Kids
Imagine you are walking down a quiet street and you spot a shiny, ten-dollar bill lying on the sidewalk.
Logic for Kids
Have you ever wondered why some arguments make perfect sense while others feel like a pile of mismatched socks...
Plato for Kids
Have you ever wondered if there is a 'perfect' version of everything somewhere else?
Socrates for Kids
Imagine a man who spent his whole life walking around a busy city, barefoot and wearing the same old cloak, ju...
Stoicism for Kids
Have you ever felt like your day was a giant remote control that everyone else was holding?
Marcus Aurelius for Kids
Imagine you are the most powerful person on Earth. Everyone does what you say, you live in a palace, and you c...
Pythagoras for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the universe has a hidden language?
Descartes for Kids
Have you ever woken up from a dream and for a second, just a tiny second, you weren't sure if you were still i...
Voltaire for Kids
Imagine living in a world where making the wrong joke could send you to a dark, stone dungeon for a year.
Thomas Aquinas for Kids
Have you ever wondered if you can prove something is real even if you cannot see it?
Buddhism Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever noticed that the 'you' who woke up this morning is just a little bit different from the 'you' si...
Buddhist Philosophy Schools for Kids
If you give the same map to ten different explorers, they might all choose a different path to reach the mount...
What is Justice for Kids
Have you ever felt a sharp, hot sting in your chest and found yourself shouting, "That's not fair!"?
Heraclitus for Kids
If you look at a river today and return to the exact same spot tomorrow, are you looking at the same river?
David Hume for Kids
How do you know that the sun will rise tomorrow morning?
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) for Kids
Have you ever felt like you were living in two different worlds at once?
Plotinus for Kids
What if everything you see: the trees, the stars, even your own hands: was actually just a ripple of light com...
Jean-Paul Sartre for Kids
If you were handed a book that told you exactly what would happen every day of your life, would you want to re...
Maimonides for Kids
Have you ever felt like you were holding two completely different ideas in your head at the same time?
Lao Tzu for Kids
Have you ever noticed that if you try really, really hard to fall asleep, you stay wide awake?
Al-Ghazali for Kids
Have you ever been so sure about something, only to realize later that you were completely wrong?
Good vs Evil for Kids
Have you ever wondered why some stories have clear villains with capes while real life feels much more complic...
Albert Camus for Kids
Have you ever asked a big question and gotten no answer at all?
Immanuel Kant for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the world looks the same to a honeybee, a cat, or a giant alien from another galaxy?
Pyrrho for Kids
Have you ever been absolutely sure about something, only to find out later that you were completely wrong?
Nietzsche for Kids
What if the rules of the world weren't written in stone, but were actually more like a giant box of LEGO brick...
Parmenides for Kids
Have you ever looked at a photograph of yourself as a baby and wondered where that baby went?
What is Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the color red you see is exactly the same red your best friend sees?
Trolley Problem for Kids
Imagine you are standing on a grassy hill, watching a heavy wooden trolley speed down a track.
Mohism for Kids
If you had a single cookie, would you give it to your best friend or a total stranger?
Montaigne for Kids
Have you ever been absolutely sure about something, only to realize later that you were totally wrong?
Hegel for Kids
Have you ever noticed that you usually have to get something wrong before you can truly get it right?
Democritus for Kids
If you took a piece of bread and kept cutting it in half, and then in half again, and then in half again, woul...
Simone de Beauvoir for Kids
Have you ever felt like you were playing a role in a play you didn't write?
Cynicism Philosophy for Kids
What would it be like to live with absolutely no stuff?
Vedanta for Kids
Have you ever looked at a drop of water and realized it has the exact same 'stuff' in it as the entire ocean?
Free Will for Kids
Think about the very last thing you did before reading this sentence.
Legalism Philosophy for Kids
Imagine a world where there are no rules, no teachers, and no one to tell you what is right or wrong.
Spinoza: Why Everything is Nature
What if the entire universe, including the trees, the stars, and even you, was actually just one single, giant...
Ship of Theseus for Kids
Imagine you have a favorite pair of socks with a tiny hole. Your mom sews it up with a new piece of thread. Ar...
Hannah Arendt for Kids
Have you ever been told to 'just follow the rules' even when the rules felt wrong?
Existentialism for Kids
Have you ever stood in the middle of a playground and suddenly wondered why you were there, or what you were s...
Diogenes for Kids
Would you be willing to give away everything you own: your toys, your bed, even your house: just to see what i...
Arthur Schopenhauer for Kids
Have you ever noticed that the moment you get the toy you really wanted, you almost immediately start thinking...
Neoplatonism for Kids
Have you ever looked at a star, or a ladybug, or even a pebble, and felt like you were somehow connected to it...
Samkhya for Kids
Have you ever been so caught up in a movie that you forgot you were sitting in a theater?
Meaning of Life for Kids
Have you ever looked at the stars, or even just at a spoon, and wondered why anything exists at all?
Neo-Confucianism for Kids
Have you ever wondered why a tree knows how to grow like a tree, or why the stars move in the same predictable...
Schrodinger's Cat for Kids
Imagine a box sitting on a table in front of you. Inside, there is a cat. Is that cat happy or grumpy? Is it a...
Leibniz for Kids
Have you ever looked at a messy room, a rainy day, or a broken toy and wondered: Could the world be any better...
Utilitarianism for Kids
Imagine you have one extra ticket to a theme park and five friends who all want to go. How do you decide who g...
John Stuart Mill for Kids
If you could do anything you wanted, right now, would you actually be happy?
Zeno of Citium for Kids
Imagine you are a successful merchant sailing across the Mediterranean Sea with a ship full of precious purple...
Al-Farabi for Kids
If you could design a perfect city where everyone was happy, what would the first rule be?
Wittgenstein for Kids
Have you ever tried to describe the taste of a strawberry to someone who has never eaten one?
Yoga Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever noticed how busy it is inside your own head?
What is Truth for Kids
If you tell your teacher the dog ate your homework, but you don't actually have a dog, is that the opposite of...
Augustine for Kids
Have you ever done something wrong just because you knew you weren't supposed to do it?
John Locke for Kids
Close your eyes and try to imagine a color you have never seen before.
Philosophical Questions for Kids
Have you ever asked a question that didn't have a single right answer?
Confucianism for Kids
Have you ever wondered why we have manners, or why we feel a special duty to take care of our families?
Kierkegaard for Kids
Have you ever stood at the top of a high slide and felt a strange mix of excitement and fear in your stomach?
Bertrand Russell for Kids
Have you ever wondered if you can be absolutely, 100 percent sure that anything is true?
Epicurus for Kids
What if the secret to a happy life isn't a mountain of toys or a chest of gold, but a simple piece of cheese a...
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) for Kids
If you closed your eyes and floated in a dark room where you couldn't feel the floor, see the walls, or hear a...
Nyaya for Kids
Have you ever been absolutely sure you saw a ghost in the corner of your room, only to realize it was just a p...
Taoism for Kids
Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to catch a bubble, the faster it pops?
Zen Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever looked at a ladybug for so long that you forgot your own name, the time of day, and what you wer...
Teaching Philosophy to Kids
Have you ever looked at a tree and wondered if it sees the world the same way you do?
Critical Thinking for Kids
Have you ever been told something that sounded just a little bit too strange to be true?
What is Consciousness for Kids
Close your eyes for a moment. Can you feel the weight of your feet on the floor, the hum of the fridge, and th...
What Makes Us Human?
If you look in a mirror, you see a face, but behind that face is a world that no one else can visit unless you...
Chinese Room for Kids
If you teach a parrot to say 'I'm hungry,' does the parrot actually feel a rumbly tummy, or is it just making ...
Brain in a Vat for Kids
Take a moment to notice the chair you are sitting on, the hum of the heater, and the smell of the air in the r...
Mary's Room for Kids
Imagine you spent your whole life in a room where everything was black, white, or gray.
Infinite Monkey Theorem for Kids
If you gave a monkey a typewriter and a billion years, could it eventually type the complete works of William ...
Zeno's Paradox for Kids
If you want to walk to the door, you first have to walk halfway there. But before you get halfway, you have to...
How to Be a Good Friend
Have you ever wondered why we choose the friends we do, or why some friendships feel like they could last fore...
What is Kindness?
Is kindness just being 'nice,' or is it something much bigger?
Why Do We Have Rules for Kids
What would happen if, starting tomorrow morning, every single rule for children simply vanished?
What is Fairness?
Have you ever felt a hot, prickly feeling in your chest when someone else got a bigger slice of cake or a long...
What is Art for Kids
If you found a beautiful, smooth stone on the beach and put it on a pedestal in a museum, would it suddenly be...
What is Beauty?
Why does your brain suddenly 'wake up' when you see a perfect sunset or hear your favorite song?
๐ง Great thinkers 41
Aristotle for Kids
Have you ever looked at a seashell, a beetle, or a star and wondered why it is exactly the way it is?
Confucius for Kids
Can a person's character be more powerful than a king's army?
Plato for Kids
Have you ever wondered if there is a 'perfect' version of everything somewhere else?
Socrates for Kids
Imagine a man who spent his whole life walking around a busy city, barefoot and wearing the same old cloak, ju...
Marcus Aurelius for Kids
Imagine you are the most powerful person on Earth. Everyone does what you say, you live in a palace, and you c...
Pythagoras for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the universe has a hidden language?
Descartes for Kids
Have you ever woken up from a dream and for a second, just a tiny second, you weren't sure if you were still i...
Voltaire for Kids
Imagine living in a world where making the wrong joke could send you to a dark, stone dungeon for a year.
Thomas Aquinas for Kids
Have you ever wondered if you can prove something is real even if you cannot see it?
Heraclitus for Kids
If you look at a river today and return to the exact same spot tomorrow, are you looking at the same river?
David Hume for Kids
How do you know that the sun will rise tomorrow morning?
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) for Kids
Have you ever felt like you were living in two different worlds at once?
Plotinus for Kids
What if everything you see: the trees, the stars, even your own hands: was actually just a ripple of light com...
Jean-Paul Sartre for Kids
If you were handed a book that told you exactly what would happen every day of your life, would you want to re...
Maimonides for Kids
Have you ever felt like you were holding two completely different ideas in your head at the same time?
Lao Tzu for Kids
Have you ever noticed that if you try really, really hard to fall asleep, you stay wide awake?
Al-Ghazali for Kids
Have you ever been so sure about something, only to realize later that you were completely wrong?
Albert Camus for Kids
Have you ever asked a big question and gotten no answer at all?
Immanuel Kant for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the world looks the same to a honeybee, a cat, or a giant alien from another galaxy?
Pyrrho for Kids
Have you ever been absolutely sure about something, only to find out later that you were completely wrong?
Nietzsche for Kids
What if the rules of the world weren't written in stone, but were actually more like a giant box of LEGO brick...
Parmenides for Kids
Have you ever looked at a photograph of yourself as a baby and wondered where that baby went?
Montaigne for Kids
Have you ever been absolutely sure about something, only to realize later that you were totally wrong?
Hegel for Kids
Have you ever noticed that you usually have to get something wrong before you can truly get it right?
Democritus for Kids
If you took a piece of bread and kept cutting it in half, and then in half again, and then in half again, woul...
Simone de Beauvoir for Kids
Have you ever felt like you were playing a role in a play you didn't write?
Spinoza: Why Everything is Nature
What if the entire universe, including the trees, the stars, and even you, was actually just one single, giant...
Hannah Arendt for Kids
Have you ever been told to 'just follow the rules' even when the rules felt wrong?
Diogenes for Kids
Would you be willing to give away everything you own: your toys, your bed, even your house: just to see what i...
Arthur Schopenhauer for Kids
Have you ever noticed that the moment you get the toy you really wanted, you almost immediately start thinking...
Leibniz for Kids
Have you ever looked at a messy room, a rainy day, or a broken toy and wondered: Could the world be any better...
John Stuart Mill for Kids
If you could do anything you wanted, right now, would you actually be happy?
Zeno of Citium for Kids
Imagine you are a successful merchant sailing across the Mediterranean Sea with a ship full of precious purple...
Al-Farabi for Kids
If you could design a perfect city where everyone was happy, what would the first rule be?
Wittgenstein for Kids
Have you ever tried to describe the taste of a strawberry to someone who has never eaten one?
Augustine for Kids
Have you ever done something wrong just because you knew you weren't supposed to do it?
John Locke for Kids
Close your eyes and try to imagine a color you have never seen before.
Kierkegaard for Kids
Have you ever stood at the top of a high slide and felt a strange mix of excitement and fear in your stomach?
Bertrand Russell for Kids
Have you ever wondered if you can be absolutely, 100 percent sure that anything is true?
Epicurus for Kids
What if the secret to a happy life isn't a mountain of toys or a chest of gold, but a simple piece of cheese a...
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) for Kids
If you closed your eyes and floated in a dark room where you couldn't feel the floor, see the walls, or hear a...
๐๏ธ Schools of thought 18
Epicureanism for Kids
If you could design a perfect day, what would it look like?
Stoicism for Kids
Have you ever felt like your day was a giant remote control that everyone else was holding?
Buddhism Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever noticed that the 'you' who woke up this morning is just a little bit different from the 'you' si...
Buddhist Philosophy Schools for Kids
If you give the same map to ten different explorers, they might all choose a different path to reach the mount...
Mohism for Kids
If you had a single cookie, would you give it to your best friend or a total stranger?
Cynicism Philosophy for Kids
What would it be like to live with absolutely no stuff?
Vedanta for Kids
Have you ever looked at a drop of water and realized it has the exact same 'stuff' in it as the entire ocean?
Legalism Philosophy for Kids
Imagine a world where there are no rules, no teachers, and no one to tell you what is right or wrong.
Existentialism for Kids
Have you ever stood in the middle of a playground and suddenly wondered why you were there, or what you were s...
Neoplatonism for Kids
Have you ever looked at a star, or a ladybug, or even a pebble, and felt like you were somehow connected to it...
Samkhya for Kids
Have you ever been so caught up in a movie that you forgot you were sitting in a theater?
Neo-Confucianism for Kids
Have you ever wondered why a tree knows how to grow like a tree, or why the stars move in the same predictable...
Utilitarianism for Kids
Imagine you have one extra ticket to a theme park and five friends who all want to go. How do you decide who g...
Yoga Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever noticed how busy it is inside your own head?
Confucianism for Kids
Have you ever wondered why we have manners, or why we feel a special duty to take care of our families?
Nyaya for Kids
Have you ever been absolutely sure you saw a ghost in the corner of your room, only to realize it was just a p...
Taoism for Kids
Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to catch a bubble, the faster it pops?
Zen Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever looked at a ladybug for so long that you forgot your own name, the time of day, and what you wer...
๐ก Big concepts 18
Ethics for Kids
Imagine you are walking down a quiet street and you spot a shiny, ten-dollar bill lying on the sidewalk.
Logic for Kids
Have you ever wondered why some arguments make perfect sense while others feel like a pile of mismatched socks...
What is Justice for Kids
Have you ever felt a sharp, hot sting in your chest and found yourself shouting, "That's not fair!"?
Good vs Evil for Kids
Have you ever wondered why some stories have clear villains with capes while real life feels much more complic...
What is Philosophy for Kids
Have you ever wondered if the color red you see is exactly the same red your best friend sees?
Free Will for Kids
Think about the very last thing you did before reading this sentence.
Meaning of Life for Kids
Have you ever looked at the stars, or even just at a spoon, and wondered why anything exists at all?
What is Truth for Kids
If you tell your teacher the dog ate your homework, but you don't actually have a dog, is that the opposite of...
Teaching Philosophy to Kids
Have you ever looked at a tree and wondered if it sees the world the same way you do?
Critical Thinking for Kids
Have you ever been told something that sounded just a little bit too strange to be true?
What is Consciousness for Kids
Close your eyes for a moment. Can you feel the weight of your feet on the floor, the hum of the fridge, and th...
What Makes Us Human?
If you look in a mirror, you see a face, but behind that face is a world that no one else can visit unless you...
How to Be a Good Friend
Have you ever wondered why we choose the friends we do, or why some friendships feel like they could last fore...
What is Kindness?
Is kindness just being 'nice,' or is it something much bigger?
Why Do We Have Rules for Kids
What would happen if, starting tomorrow morning, every single rule for children simply vanished?
What is Fairness?
Have you ever felt a hot, prickly feeling in your chest when someone else got a bigger slice of cake or a long...
What is Art for Kids
If you found a beautiful, smooth stone on the beach and put it on a pedestal in a museum, would it suddenly be...
What is Beauty?
Why does your brain suddenly 'wake up' when you see a perfect sunset or hear your favorite song?
๐ค Thought experiments 10
Allegory of the Cave for Kids
Imagine you have lived your entire life inside a dark room, watching shapes move across a wall.
Trolley Problem for Kids
Imagine you are standing on a grassy hill, watching a heavy wooden trolley speed down a track.
Ship of Theseus for Kids
Imagine you have a favorite pair of socks with a tiny hole. Your mom sews it up with a new piece of thread. Ar...
Schrodinger's Cat for Kids
Imagine a box sitting on a table in front of you. Inside, there is a cat. Is that cat happy or grumpy? Is it a...
Philosophical Questions for Kids
Have you ever asked a question that didn't have a single right answer?
Chinese Room for Kids
If you teach a parrot to say 'I'm hungry,' does the parrot actually feel a rumbly tummy, or is it just making ...
Brain in a Vat for Kids
Take a moment to notice the chair you are sitting on, the hum of the heater, and the smell of the air in the r...
Mary's Room for Kids
Imagine you spent your whole life in a room where everything was black, white, or gray.
Infinite Monkey Theorem for Kids
If you gave a monkey a typewriter and a billion years, could it eventually type the complete works of William ...
Zeno's Paradox for Kids
If you want to walk to the door, you first have to walk halfway there. But before you get halfway, you have to...