My son, the 11 year old philosopher

Last month, my soon to be 11 year old announced he wants to be a philosopher, and proceeded to read books pertinent to the pursuit. He also wants to play the guitar, keyboard and drums and be a "one man band like Prince" and is strumming and keyboarding and drumming on things. I think it's cute, and I'm also giving him a taste of Mortimer Adler, Will Durant and several instruments to use to go for these lofty goals.

I'm so very grateful to have a son who is interested and capable of reading and thinking about thinking. He crossed a threshold a few years back, after mastering a more than adequate degree of literacy. His literacy has allowed him to become aware of the bigger issues in life, how to bring order to the chaos of life. He is ready to explore how people in the world have asked and answered the big questions of life. I feel very honored and relieved and nervous all at once. Also somewhat in awe of this child.

Once you start making a list of books to read that pertain to philosophy, you have to decide if you want to pursue a classical or more eclectic approach. I am sticking with classical at this point, so my list looks like this right now:

Possible Philosophy Books for 11 year old philosophers (and do not for one minute think this was an easy list to put together):

Fiction that inspired children to think about thinking:
Harry Stottlemeir's Discovery, Matthew Lipman, 1974, Upper Montclair, NJ: Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children.
Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy, Jostein Gaarder, 1994

Nonfiction:
Young Person's Guide to Philosophy by Jeremy Weate
Philosophy for Kids : 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything!, David A. White
The Examined Life: Advanced Philosophy for Kids, David A. White


If he wants to go beyond these books and reference material, there is a next level I've considered.


Books and online info about world history and the traditions of philosophy:

Reference material:
ORACLE ThinkQuest Interactive Philosophy Resource http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110297/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, online at http://plato.stanford.edu/

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/

Google Search in Timeline View: Timeline Anything you search in Google can be viewed in Timeline view, try it, you can search on ideas!!

The History Guide's Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/ancient.html#table


Overview of the history and traditions of philosophy:
The 103 Great Ideas from the Syntopicon by Mortimer Adler

Index of 103 Ideas

Angel; Animal; Aristocracy; Art; Astronomy; Beauty; Being; Cause; Chance; Change; Citizen; Constitution; Courage; Custom and Convention; Definition; Democracy; Desire; Dialectic; Duty; Education; Element; Emotion; Equality (added later); Eternity; Evolution; Experience; Family; Fate; Form; God; Good and Evil; Government; Habit; Happiness; History; Honor; Hypothesis; Idea; Immortality; Induction; Infinity; Judgment; Justice; Knowledge; Labor; Language; Law; Liberty; Life and Death; Logic; Love; Man; Mathematics; Matter; Mechanics; Medicine; Memory and Imagination; Metaphysics; Mind; Monarchy; Nature; Necessity and Contingency; Oligarchy; One and Many; Opinion; Opposition; Philosophy; Physics; Pleasure and Pain; Poetry; Principle; Progress; Prophecy; Prudence; Punishment; Quality; Quantity; Reasoning; Relation; Religion; Revolution; Rhetoric; Same and Other; Science; Sense; Sign and Symbol; Sin; Slavery; Soul; Space; State; Temperance; Theology; Time; Truth; Tyranny; Universal and Particular; Virtue and Vice; War and Peace; Wealth; Will; Wisdom; World

Books:
Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age - Will Durant
Six Great Ideas - Mortimer Adler
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time - Will Durant
How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization by Mortimer Jerome Adler
The Portable Greek Historians: The Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius (Viking Portable Library) - M. I. Finley

Digging into Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle
The Basic Works of Aristotle - Richard Peter Mckeon
The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle - Jonathan Barnes
Understand how Aristotle's effect lived on as an influence on the middle ages:
Aquinas: An Introduction to the Life and Work of the Great Medieval Thinker - Frederick Charles Copleston

Albertus Magnus


The Time Of Our Lives - Mortimer Adler
The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes - Mortimer Adler
The Lessons of History - Will Durant
Aristotle For Everybody - Mortimer Adler
How to Think About God - Mortimer Adler
How to Speak, How To Listen - Mortimer Adler
Ten Philosophical Mistakes - Mortimer Adler
Intellect: Mind Over Matter - Mortimer Adler
The Four Dimensions of Philosophy - Mortimer Adler

References:
An Introduction to Philosophy - Jacques Maritain
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy - Simon Blackburn
Adler's Philosophical Dictionary -- Mortimer Adler
The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers - Will Durant
Natural Law: Reflections on Theory and Practice - Jacques Maritain
The Degrees of Knowledge (The Collected Works of Jacques Maritain) - Jacques Maritain and Ralph M. McInerny

Finally: understand culture and why we pursue philosophy within modern life:
The Making of Middlebrow Culture - Joan Shelley
Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America - Lawrence Levine

These books seem like a good overview of the subject, at least for now.

Levels of Living Redux

Filth, Frugality, Flourishing or Fancy

On which level are your living? I thought more about this and added the best level of all: flourishing, like an awesome garden. Blooming and growing vigorously.

You don't need to or want to live in filth, and you can't afford to live fancy, so better to learn to live in frugality or best of all, live a flourishing life.

Frugal is thrifty, prudent, economical, careful. Not particularly popular way to be a part of the consumer society. When we buy something big, we try to go with something better than the middle, but usually not the top of the line. Flourishing is consciously choosing how to feel, think and be in your world, and being content with your choices.

A flourishing consumer knows that too much stuff becomes clutter and tends to weed out anything gets in the way of the beauty and harmony of the space, similar to a well tended garden.

I've seen people living in filth, it's sad and pathetic. Usually it's because of lack of resources, lack of hope, lack of vision, lack of help. God is good and we are blessed not to have that trial to deal with. We are blessed to have what we need and some of our wants. We don't live in the lap of luxury but we live in more than necessity. Solidly middle. That's a flourishing mind set: what's needed to let the essentials bloom.

I think I read and believed this quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences."

Industrious middle level we are, and that allows us to live in a degree of dignity. Being content in our frugality, that can be hard in a consumer culture, but I strive to be content with what we have and teach my child some form of contentment with the level, and the ability to strive for whatever level they so desire in their lives.

I would presume to embellish on Franklin's thought: Be deliberate and methodical in acquiring knowledge and you will be well-informed about what is important. Be industrious and content with your needs and you will prosper. Be moderate in your appetites and you will be healthy. Be aware of virtues and practice them and you will feel balanced. By such conduct, your life will thrive and make steady progress.

Emotion security, safety, acceptance

Those elements equal love for most of us. Definitely judgment and criticism must move far away, into another space and time. They are the poisons that kill the spirit and plant self-loathing. That doesn't mean there can be no judgment or criticism, but not in the safe place. The blanket of security and acceptance must be available. The heartache and pain sown into the world by untimely and awkward judgment and criticism is probably untold. Wars and all kinds of strife are created from that seed.

As a mom, I am learning each and every day to kindle the spark of a young spirit and not quench it with words of criticism and non-verbal gestures of judgment. God please help me to grow and learn this lesson better every day. Thank you for your many blessings.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS Lyrics

I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner
album Agent Provocateur (1984).


Gotta take a little time

A little time to think things over

I better read between the lines

In case I need it when I'm older



This mountain I must climb

Feels like a world upon my shoulders

Through the clouds I see love shine

It keeps me warm as life grows colder



In my life there's been heartache and pain

I don't know if I can face it again

Can't stop now, I've traveled too far

To change this lonely life



Chorus

I want to know what love is

I want you to show me

I want to feel what love is

I know you can show me



I'm gonna take a little time

A little time to look around me

I've got nowhere left to hide

It looks like love has finally found me



In my life there's been heartache and pain

I don't know if I can face it again

I can't stop now, I've traveled too far

To change this lonely life


Chorus

Reboot: Losing your job in this economy can be a refreshing change

Rebooting your dreams / career ... You think you know who you are based on what you do. Then the economy kicks you out of the field and wow, do you even know who you are anymore? That's when you take a minute to ask yourself some hard but good questions: What is worth doing? What is within my reach? You have to check out your choices and your opportunities. Your dreams. Every single day allows you to start things over. Reboot. Refresh. Restart. Go for it.

Reboot.

It ain't easy or simple. But it's a chance for a fresh start.

Zakka: It's the term for everything and anything that spruces up your home, life and outlook

I'm not anywhere near the stratosphere of zakka fashion trends, but I am very enamored of the concept. Design Zakka Tokyo is a trade show in Japan that provides a cutting-edge platform for designers and those retailers who want to place orders for innovative and stylish design from all over the world. Buyers from top interior and lifestyle shops shall visit to stock the latest design.