Why Do Things Have Names?

by Jean Paul Mongin, Junko Shibuya (Illustrator)

Overview

Why is a horse called a horse and not a giraffe or a flapdoodle? Why did Plato go from being called Aristocles, after his grandfather, to being called Plato, which means muscleman? Where do any names come from? In this delightful book, readers young and old will explore with Plato and ponder why anything or anyone has a name at all. Do readers know where their own name comes from?
 
At its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers! Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life’s “big questions,” however strange or impractical. Plato & Co. introduces children—and curious grown-ups—to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Descartes to Socrates, Einstein, Plato, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging—and often funny—story that presents basic tenets of philosophical thought alongside vibrant color illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783035802757
Publisher:	Diaphanes
Publication date:	08/22/2020
Series:	Plato & Co.
Edition description:	New edition
Pages:	42
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jean Paul Mongin is a philosopher who lives and works in Paris. He is the editor of the Plato & Co. series. 


Junko Shibuya is a Japanese illustrator.

Editorial Reviews

2020-09-01
Imported from France, Platonic realism for preteens, introduced by the great philosopher himself.

“Why is a horse called a horse” instead of, say, a giraffe? Or, for that matter, “flapdoodle”? Just to keep this all as far as possible from becoming a weighty discourse, a toga-clad, woolly-bearded White gent—plainly a philosopher—leads a Socratic-style enquiry loosely based on the Cratylus dialogue that sets up and culminates in an elaborate, fantastic pun. He then goes on to explain that “Plato” is a nickname that translates (very freely) as “Muscleman” and challenges readers to find out where their own names come from. Shibuya’s illustrations helpfully sustain the tone with images of onlookers in antique dress and vaguely Grecian settings along with various creatures led by a smirking horse, all set amid multiple flaps, small pop-ups, die-cut holes, and, at the end, a foil mirror. An attempt to make the point that “horse” is not a universal term goes off the rails, being both confusingly phrased and illustrated with a group of riders clad in stereotypical Native American and like ethnic garb. Otherwise, following Ronan de Calan and Donatien Mary’s The Ghost of Karl Marx, translated by Anna Street (2015), and other entries in the Plato & Co. series, this outing may dip barely a toe into its philosophical waters but does at least begin to demystify them. Stylized human figures throughout show mild differentiation in racial presentation and body type.

A quick and comical gallop into the world of ideas. (Informational novelty. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews