Nasty, Brutish, and Short

Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids

By: Scott Hershovitz

Narrated by: Scott Hershovitz

An NPR Best Book of 2022 * One of Christian Science Monitor's 10 best books of May

“This amazing new book . . . takes us on a journey through classic and contemporary philosophy powered by questions like ‘What do we have the right to do? When is it okay to do this or that?’ They explore punishment and authority and sex and gender and race and the nature of truth and knowledge and the existence of God and the meaning of life and Scott just does an incredible job.” —Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic

Some of the best philosophers in the world gather in surprising places—preschools and playgrounds. They debate questions about metaphysics and morality, even though they’ve never heard those words and can’t tie their shoes. They’re kids. And as University of Michigan professor of philosophy and law Scott Hershovitz shows, they can help grown-ups solve some of life’s greatest mysteries.

Hershovitz has two young sons, Rex and Hank. From the time they could talk, he noticed that they raised philosophical questions and tried to answer them. They re-created ancient arguments and advanced entirely new ones. That’s not unusual, Hershovitz says. Every kid is a philosopher.

Powered by questions like: Does Hank have the right to drink soda? Is it ever okay to swear? and, Does the number six exist? the Hershovitzes take us on a fun romp through classic and contemporary philosophy. If we join kids on philosophical adventures, Hershovitz argues, we can become sharper thinkers and recapture their wonder at the world.

Excellent

I like this book so much I ordered a print copy. Hopefully there will be a part two. It would be great to explore some of the ideas in greater detail. Highly recommend this book.

Great recap of a bunch of major threads in philosophy

I was a philosophy major many years ago. I'm rusty and behind on the field, but this is a great summary of a lot of the major questions and some of the more influential answers.

I appreciate the synthesis of classical answers (Descartes, Hume, Kant, etc.) with more modern thinkers. He also does better than my faculty did of bringing in diverse voices, long since past (often unknown until more recently) and present day. Would have liked to see more famous black feminist theorists whose non-admission to the "philosopher" club is IMO a real problem (Patricia Hill Collins and bell hooks, for instance), especially given the reasonably sound discussion of race where they have especially good, unique insights. (And given that other disciplines are represented here.) But he does better than most cis white guy philosophers with not just citing other cis white guys.

I also appreciate the author's humility and focus on methods and disputes instead of just giving us his answers. We could all use more of that approach, for sure.

The convos with his boys are obviously edited for brevity and clarity, and if you can't stand children the hook may be annoying. But I thought it was sincere and charming, and that it added to the book.

Add in solid narration and this is a 5 star listen all around!

Epic

Loved every word. A nice reminder of how best to engage my kids while ensuring they remain open-minded.

Lighthearted Philosophy

A thought provoking casual discussion about philosophy and how even kids can be a window into this seemingly complex world

Good narration, solid listen

I enjoyed all the fun stories of the author’s children and it helped me get a sense of how I can incorporate philosophical questioning with every day topics/scenarios with my children. I also liked how he incorporated famous philosophical stories/paradoxes as well. Wasn’t too interested in the chapters on race, gender, God etc… but I can appreciate that those are hot topics and will be of interest to others.