The I Index

Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids

Maybe someday

45

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

75/100

Critics

15/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

Scott Hershovitz

Publisher:

Penguin Publishing Group

Date:

May 3, 2022

From a University of Michigan professor of law and philosophy, an inquiry into life’s biggest questions with the help of first-rate philosophers—including his two young children.

What The Reviewers Say

John Carey,
The Sunday Times (UK)
[Hershovitz] seems to me needlessly insulting to his children.
Alexandra Jacobs,
The New York Time Book Review
You’ll certainly learn much, or be reminded of much.
THÚY ĐINH,
NPR
Ultimately, Hershovitz's approach, in betting on his children's endless capacity to ask trenchant questions, has a bittersweet aspect — it's at once like faith and doubt. Rex and Hank's childhood years are finite. The portal to their seemingly infinite aptitude for wonder may close once they reach adulthood. Nevertheless, Hershovitz reminds parents to embrace our children's 'strangeness' as long as we can, and maybe in the process find our way back to the questing child-philosopher within us..
Elissa Strauss,
The Atlantic
Hershovitz’s book helps place this normal part of the developmental process in a philosophical context, highlighting the ways your kids’ sometimes awesome and sometimes annoying questions make them tiny versions of Socrates and Sartre.