Thought Experiments, Big Questions & Brain Games
First published 2017 by Walker Books Ltd, 87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ • Text © Hollie Jennifer Parry • Illustrations © Hollie Jennifer Parry • The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted • This book has been typeset in Georgia • Printed in Bath • All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording without prior written permission from the publisher • British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library • ISBN 978-1-2345-6789-0 • www.bathspa.ac.uk
by Hollie Jennifer Parry
CONTENTS
What is Philosophy?.......................Page 1 & 2 Philosopher’s Corner......................Page 3 & 4 Thought Experiments Ship of Theseus..............................Page 5 & 6
The Frog and The Scorpion.......................Page 7 & 8 The Curiosity Shop...................................Page 9 & 10 Brain in a Vat...........................................Page 11 & 12 Can We Teleport Through Time?..........Page 13 & 14
PHILO • SOPHY (Latin: Philosophia) Translation: Philo (lover) sophia (wisdom) Thousands of years ago in ancient Greece, around 6th century BC, a man named Pythagoras (Pie-thag-or-us) invented the word ‘philosophia’, or what we know today as philosophy.
Philosophers are fascinated with life, nature and the universe. The goal of a philosopher is to seek ultimate wisdom, often by attempting to answer the world’s most unanswerable questions.
METAPHYSICS The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of reality EPISTEMOLOGY The branch of philosophy that studies nature and the meaning of knowledge ETHICS & AESTHETICS The study of morals, emotions and beauty
ONCE upon a time, young man, Androgeus, sets sail from Crete for Athens to take part in the games that are held there every five years. Being strong and skillful he is highly successful, and soon becomes a crowd favourite. However, there are some who are not so pleased with his success, and they assassinate him. Unfortunately for Athens, Androgens was the son of King Minos, who is angered when he hears of what has befallen his son. He orders the Cretan fleet to sail for Athens and asks King Aegeus to surrender his son’s murderers.
Not knowing who the murderers were, rather than suffer at the hands of the Cretans, Aegeus surrendered the whole town to Minos’ mercy. His punishment was that every seven years the seven most courageous boys and the seven most beautiful girls would be sent to Crete as a sacrifice to the Minotaur. The Minotaur, as many people know, was a creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Being the offspring of beast and human, the Minotaur was ferocious, and could only live on human flesh. Minos therefore had him locked away at the heart of a gigantic labyrinth. It was into this maze that the Athenian youths would be sent to meet their end. On the third occasion of the sacrifice, Theseus, son of both King Aegeus and Poseidon, who had slept with the same woman, Aethra, in the same night, volunteered to slay the Minotaur. He boarded the boat to Crete, was stripped of his weapons by the guards, and set sail to his destiny. When he arrived in Crete he met Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos,
who fell in love with him. She decided to help him. She went to the builder of the labyrinth, Daedalus, and asked him how the Minotaur could be found. He, of course, told her, and this information she gave to Theseus, along with a clew - a ball of thread wrapped around a stick. That night, Ariadne took Theseus to the labyrinth. When he entered, he tied the end of the thread to the door post – and took from his tunic a sword that he had hidden there. Following Ariadne’s instructions he made his way to the centre of the labyrinth, woke the Minotaur, and, after a fierce battle, slew the beast. Following the thread, Theseus found his way out of the labyrinth, gathered together the other Athenians, Ariadne, and her younger sister Phaedra, and escaped from Crete on a ship, which became known as the ship of Theseus. However, they didn’t return directly to Athens. Instead, they went on a long journey, during which Theseus abandoned Ariadne on an island – but that’s another story.
During their voyage of many years, from time to time a piece of the ship needed to be replaced. A plank here, a handrail there, the masts, even the sails. In fact, by the time they returned to Athens, every piece of the ship had been replaced.
Is it still the same ship that set sail from Crete?
Once upon a time there was a frog. One day, Frog was sitting by a river bank when along came a Scorpion. “Hello brother Frog,” said Scorpion. “I wonder if you might be so kind as to give me a ride across the river on your back.” Frog knew that Scorpion could not swim. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Frog. “You have a deadly sting. You might kill me.” “But why would I do that?” replied Scorpion. “If I stung you, we would both die.” “Mmm,” thought Frog. “That makes sense.” “Alright Scorpion, jump onto my back and I will give you a ride across the river,” he said. So Scorpion jumped onto Frog’s back and Frog began to swim across the river.
But half way across, Scorpion took his deadly sting and stuck it into Frog’s back! As the poison filled Frog’s body his arms began to stiffen and they both began to sink. “Why?” gasped Frog in despair. “Sorry Frog,” said Scorpion. “It’s my nature.”
Should the scorpion take the blame for his actions?
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to float in space? To talk to a dinosaur? To get lost in a cheesy pizza kingdom with only pepperoni friends? Get ready to explore the ends of the human imagination with thought experiments, puzzles and brain games that allow you to uncover exactly what the infinite universe truly has to offer. With philosophy, anything is possible.
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