Question

Gopnik suggests that children's thinking is like a lantern while adults' thinking is like a spotlight. Explain what she meant.

Answer 1

Gopnik suggests that children's thinking is like a lantern while adults' thinking is like a spotlight. Explain what she meant.

She is a psychologist as well as philosopher. She became known for her book, the philosophical baby. She states that babies are known to be more conscious than the adults. This is because, when adults concentrate on a particular topic in the worl, they would be shutting down the surrounding elements. This in turn, makes them unattentive to some of the unconscious stimuli. Rather, in babies, this will not occur. Babies as well as younger children would not be able to focus their attention intentionally at one thing just in the form that adults do. Thus, their light is diffused like a lantern. And the light or attention that adults have is more concentrated and focused on one thing blackening out surrounding things, in the form of a spotlight.