The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love and the Meaning of Life, by Alison Gopnik

In the last thirty years there’s been a revolution in our scientific understanding of babies and young children, a revolution that’s also transformed our understanding of human nature itself. In this webinar, Dr.Gopnik will outline some of the new discoveries and their implications for the way we think about young children and ourselves.

Human beings have a longer childhood than any other animal – our children are more helpless and dependent than any others. Why make babies so helpless for so long? Dr. Gopnik will show that childhood – our long period of helplessness – is responsible for our uniquely human consciousness and our ability to learn, imagine and love. Their long protected childhood gives human babies an opportunity to learn and play, and that lets them plan and work as adults.

Research shows that even the youngest babies have learning abilities that are more powerful than those of the smartest scientists and most advanced computers. Toddlers already analyze statistics and do experiments. In their unstoppable pretend play, preschoolers also use their discoveries to imagine new ways that the world might be. Children not only learn about the world around them, they also learn about other people and themselves. By the time they are three or four they understand love and morality. These remarkable learning abilities reflect special features of babies’ and children’s brains, features that may actually make them more conscious than adults.

Join this webinar to learn more about  the concepts in Dr. Gopnik’s book, The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life and how important the activities of infancy are for lifelong learning.

All sessions are 1.5 hours long, and include a brief announcement from our sponsor. 2:oo PM – 3:30 PM Eastern Time. Can’t participate in our webinars at the appointed time? Never fear! All of the webinars are recorded. To view the recording, simply register now and you will receive an email with a link to the recording when it is ready to be viewed. You can still download the certificate by watching the recording to the end when the certificate link is announced and displayed on the screen. *Please be advised that you will only be eligible for the great door prizes if you participate in the live session. See the schedule of upcoming webinars.