The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Mind Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life

What is it like to be inside the brain of a baby or toddler? How is
their interaction with the world different from the consciousness of an
adult? These are the questions that cognitive scientists like Alison
Gopnik ponder and research to discover the answers.
The main premise of this book is that according to evolutionary
psychology the main purpose for the period of time from birth to age
five is an intense period of learning and change. Gopnik argues that
our genes do not tell the whole picture of the human being we are to
become. By studying babies and young children, she has come to
appreciate this human ability to change through interacting with our
environment, especially other people in our environment. During the
early years, our brain can engage in continuous experimentation and
great creativity. As neuroscience has shown, the baby’s brain has more
neural pathways than an adult brain and through experience pruning
of unused or little used pathways will occur. In this way, babies’ can
adapt to the particular cultural milieu into which they are born.