"The Philosophical Baby" - Dr Alison Gopnik Interviewed on Freedomain Radio

I saw Dr. Gopnik at the Consciousness Conference here in Tucson in 2008. I was skeptical of her presentation then, but I have since become a huge fan. We have severely underestimated the interpersonal and intellectual skills of infants. Her book is The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life.

Added: 12/8/2009

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. She received her BA from McGill University and her PhD. from Oxford University. Her honors include a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada University Research Fellowship, an Osher Visiting Scientist Fellowship at the Exploratorium, a Center for the Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences Fellowship, and a Moore Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. She is an internationally recognized leader in the study of children's learning and development and was the first to argue that children's minds could help us understand deep philosophical questions. She was one of the founders of the study of "theory of mind", illuminating how children come to understand the minds of others, and she formulated the "theory theory", the idea that children learn in the same way that scientists do.

Tags: children, intelligence, mind, Psychology, theory of mind, The Philosophical Baby, Dr Alison Gopnik, Interview, Freedomain Radio