What Children's Minds Tell Us about Truth, Love & the Meaning of Life

The Philosophical Baby

A groundbreaking exploration into the minds of babies - and into what means to be human.

Her pages are packed with provocative observations and cunning insights.  I'd highly recommend this fascinating book to any parent of a young child - and, indeed anyone who has ever been a baby

The Philosophical Baby has interesting things to tell us. They are clearly expressed and thought-provoking. And they do their work on the reader

An astonishingly interesting book... [It] teaches us a tremendous amount about the human condition and how the mind is made

Richly provocative and endlessly insightful... This book is at once touching, eloquent and masterful in its fascinating revelations about what makes us human

Frank J. Sulloway, author of Born to Rebel: Birth Order; Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives

Absorbing, smart and enjoyable... Parents and scientists will enjoy the insights but so will anyone who has thought about the question of what it means to be human

Lisa Randall, author of Warped Passages: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions

For most of us, having a baby is the most profound, intense, and fascinating experience of our lives. Now scientists and philosophers are starting to appreciate babies, too. The last decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of infants and young children. Scientists used to believe that babies were irrational, and that their thinking and experience were limited. Recently, they have discovered that babies learn more, create more, care more, and experience more than we could ever have imagined. And there is good reason to believe that babies are actually cleverer, more thoughtful, and even more conscious than adults. 
 
This new science holds answers to some of the deepest and oldest questions about what it means to be human. A new baby's captivated gaze at her mother's face lays the foundations for love and morality. A toddler's unstoppable explorations of his playpen hold the key to scientific discovery. A three-year-old's wild make-believe explains how we can imagine the future, write novels, and invent new technologies. Alison Gopnik - a leading psychologist and philosopher, as well as a mother - explains the groundbreaking new psychological, neuroscientific, and philosophical developments in our understanding of very young children, transforming our understanding of how babies see the world, and in turn promoting a deeper appreciation for the role of parents.

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and an affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an internationally recognised leader in the study of children's learning and development. She writes the Mind and Matter column for the Wall Street Journal and is the author of The Philosophical Baby and co-author of The Scientist in the Crib. She has three sons and lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, Alvy Ray Smith.

For most of us, having a baby is the most profound, intense, and fascinating experience of our lives. Now scientists and philosophers are starting to appreciate babies, too. 
 
The last decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of infants and young children. Scientists used to believe that babies were irrational, and that their thinking and experience were limited. Recently, they have discovered that babies learn more, create more, care more, and experience more than we could ever have imagined. And there is good reason to believe that babies are actually cleverer, more thoughtful, and even more conscious than adults. 
 
This new science holds answers to some of the deepest and oldest questions about what it means to be human. A new baby's captivated gaze at her mother's face lays the foundations for love and morality. A toddler's unstoppable explorations of his playpen hold the key to scientific discovery. A three-year-old's wild make-believe explains how we can imagine the future, write novels, and invent new technologies. 
 
Alison Gopnik - a leading psychologist and philosopher, as well as a mother - explains the groundbreaking new psychological, neuroscientific, and philosophical developments in our understanding of very young children, transforming our understanding of how babies see the world, and in turn promoting a deeper appreciation for the role of parents.

Alison Gopnik

The Gardener and the Carpenter should be required reading for anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming a parent ... Gopnik's science-based assertion is a welcome corrective to the prevailing culture of coaching and tutoring children

[An] elegantly readable and thoughtful book… It should be required reading for anyone involved in educational reform.

[A] thoughtful book… Gopnik shines when she describes the intricate world of children’s play… This is a lovely book, and the life’s work that animates it, will only deepen that bond, helping our children to flourish

Gopnik's book seems a welcome burst of common sense ... fascinating.

The Gardener and the Carpenter is warm, humane and perceptive.

[The Gardener and the Carpenter] calls into question the modern notion that good parents can mold their children into successful adults ... Gopnik writes with an approachable style and straightforward language ... Children are not supposed to become like their parents; they learn from them to create something new. Each generation is different from the ones before. And that, Gopnik suggests, is the whole point of being human.

Deeply researched ... [Gopnik's] approach focuses on helping children to find their own way ... She describes a wide range of experiments showing that children learn less through 'conscious and deliberate teaching' than through watching, listening, and imitating.

What a relief to find a book that takes a stand against the practice of “helicopter parenting” so prevalent today . . . [The Gardener and the Carpenter] not only dispels the myth of a single best model for good parenting but also backs up its proposals with real-life examples and research studies . . . This book will provide helpful inspiration for parents and may prompt some to rethink their strategies.

It’s hard to think of a book that has more to say to our society… Read it. It will change your life.

Gopnik shows a particularly sensitive grasp of the unique dynamics of the intergenerational relationship of care between parents and children.

What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children

Selected as a Book of the Year by the Financial Times 
‘The Gardener and the Carpenter should be required reading for anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming a parent’ Financial Times 
 
Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call ‘parenting’ is a surprisingly new invention. In the past thirty years, the concept of parenting and the huge industry surrounding it have transformed childcare into obsessive, controlling, and goal-orientated labour intended to create a particular kind of child, and therefore a particular kind of adult. 
 
Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn, Gopnik shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other. The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world. ‘Parenting’ won't make children learn – but caring parents let children learn by creating a secure, loving environment. 
 
In The Gardener and the Carpenter, the pioneering developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parenting is profoundly wrong – it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for children and their parents too.

Alison Gopnik

Praise for The Gardener and the Carpenter

The Gardener and the Carpenter should be required reading for anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming a parent ... Gopnik's science-based assertion is a welcome corrective to the prevailing culture o ...

[An] elegantly readable and thoughtful book… It should be required reading for anyone involved in educational reform.

[A] thoughtful book… Gopnik shines when she describes the intricate world of children’s play… This is a lovely book, and the life’s work that animates it, will only deepen that bond, helping our children to flourish

The Gardener and the Carpenter should be required reading for anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming a parent ... Gopnik's science-based assertion is a welcome corrective to the prevailing culture o ...

[An] elegantly readable and thoughtful book… It should be required reading for anyone involved in educational reform.

[A] thoughtful book… Gopnik shines when she describes the intricate world of children’s play… This is a lovely book, and the life’s work that animates it, will only deepen that bond, helping our children to flourish

The Gardener and the Carpenter should be required reading for anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming a parent ... Gopnik's science-based assertion is a welcome corrective to the prevailing culture o ...

[An] elegantly readable and thoughtful book… It should be required reading for anyone involved in educational reform.

[A] thoughtful book… Gopnik shines when she describes the intricate world of children’s play… This is a lovely book, and the life’s work that animates it, will only deepen that bond, helping our children to flourish

Books by Alison Gopnik

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