Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and philosophy at UC Berkeley, explores the complexities of love and connection. She discusses how emotional care shapes society, offering insights into children's creativity versus adult efficiency. Gopnik contrasts 'gardener' and 'carpenter' parenting styles, emphasizing nurturing over rigidity. She also dives into the evolving roles of caregivers and the importance of diverse family structures. The conversation challenges traditional notions of education, advocating for environments that foster exploration and genuine connections.
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The Gopnik Family
Alison Gopnik's family includes well-known figures like Adam Gopnik and Blake Gopnik.
Her parents, university professors, had six children in eleven years, fostering an early interest in child development.
insights INSIGHT
Children as Explorers
Children, particularly toddlers, explore possibilities and gather information.
Gopnik's research uses techniques like video observation and problem-solving tasks to understand children's thinking.
insights INSIGHT
The Infant Experience
Infants' experience might be similar to a psychedelic state: overwhelming and open to more information than they can process.
Their brains, like those under psychedelics, are highly plastic and less controlled by the prefrontal cortex.
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In this influential work, Hume seeks to establish a 'science of man' by applying the experimental method of reasoning, inspired by Isaac Newton's achievements in the physical sciences. The treatise is divided into three books: 'Of the Understanding', 'Of the Passions', and 'Of Morals'. Hume argues that human behavior is driven by passions rather than reason, introduces the problem of induction, and defends a sentimentalist account of morality. He also discusses personal identity and free will from a sceptical and compatibilist perspective.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
Ghost Reak Publications
The gardener and the carpenter
Alison Gopnik
In this book, Alison Gopnik illuminates the paradoxes of parenthood from a scientific perspective and challenges the myth of 'good parenting'. She argues that the contemporary approach to parenting, which has become obsessive, controlling, and goal-oriented, is not only based on bad science but also detrimental to both children and parents. Gopnik draws on human evolution and her own research to show that children are designed to be messy, unpredictable, playful, and imaginative, and that caring for them should not involve shaping them into a particular type of adult.
The philosophical baby
Alison Gopnik
In 'The Philosophical Baby', Alison Gopnik challenges traditional views of infants and young children, revealing their remarkable abilities to learn, imagine, and experience the world. The book discusses how children's unique consciousness and learning strategies contribute to human creativity and morality. Gopnik also explores how understanding children's minds can shed light on deep philosophical questions about human existence.
Happy Thanksgiving! We will be back next week with brand new episodes, but on a day when so many of us are thinking about love and relationships I wanted to share an episode that has changed the way I think about those topics in a profound way.
Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of California Berkeley. She’s published more than 100 journal articles and half a dozen books, including most recently The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children. She runs a cognitive development and learning lab where she studies how young children come to understand the world around them, and she’s built on that research to do work in AI, to understand how adults form bonds with both children and each other, and to examine what creativity is and how we can nurture it in ourselves and — more importantly — each other.
But this conversation isn’t just about kids -- it's about what it means to be human. What makes us feel love for each other. How we can best care for each other. How our minds really work in the formative, earliest days, and what we lose as we get older. The role community is meant to play in our lives.
This episode has done more than just change the way I think. It’s changed how I live my life. I hope it can do the same for you.
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