Philosophy for Kids: Questions to Think Through

If you do a good thing only to get a reward, is it still good?

Then ask: Does the reason behind an action change what the action is?

Is it worse to break something on purpose than by accident, if the result is the same?

Then ask: Should the consequence be the same?

If nobody ever finds out, is a wrong thing still wrong?

Then ask: Who is harmed when nobody knows?

Can a rule be wrong?

Then ask: How would you know, and what should you do about it?

Do you have to keep a promise you were tricked into making?

Then ask: What makes a promise count?

Is it fair to keep a whole class in for what one kid did?

Then ask: What does the teacher hope will happen, and does that make it fair?

Is being kind the same as being nice?

Then ask: Can you think of a kind thing that did not feel nice?

If you find something and cannot find its owner, is it yours?

Then ask: How hard do you have to look first?

Is it wrong to step on an ant? What about a flower?

Then ask: What makes one thing matter more than another?

Are you responsible for something you saw and did not stop?

Then ask: Does it depend on how easy it was to stop?

Can something be right for one person and wrong for another?

Then ask: Give an example, and then one where that cannot be so.

Is a thought real?

Then ask: Where is it, and can anyone else ever see it?

Do numbers exist, or did people make them up?

Then ask: Would there still be three rocks if nobody could count?

If a tree falls where nobody can hear it, does it make a sound?

Then ask: What do you mean by "sound": the shaking air or the hearing?

Do you see the same red that I see?

Then ask: Is there any way we could ever check?

Can you know something without being able to explain it?

Then ask: Give an example of something you know that way.

Is a character in a book real in any way?

Then ask: Can something that is not real change what you do?

Can you be completely sure of anything?

Then ask: What are you most sure of, and what makes you so sure?

If a robot says "ouch," is it in pain?

Then ask: How do you know that other people feel pain?

Is it possible to think about nothing?

Then ask: Try it. What happened?

Are colors still there in the dark?

Then ask: Is color in the thing, in the light or in your eyes?

Is a question with no answer still a good question?

Then ask: What do you get from asking it anyway?

If you lost all your memories, would you still be you?

Then ask: What makes you you: what you remember, what you do, or something else?

Would you still be you with a different name?

Then ask: What could not be changed without changing who you are?

Do you choose what you like, or does it just happen to you?

Then ask: Could you decide to like something you dislike?

Is your mind the same thing as your brain?

Then ask: What makes you think so?

If there were an exact copy of you, would it be you?

Then ask: Which one of you would get your bed?

Are you free to choose, or do other things make you choose?

Then ask: Think of the last choice you made. Could you really have picked the other way?

Can you want two opposite things at once?

Then ask: Which of the two is the real you?

Is it possible to lie to yourself?

Then ask: Who is doing the lying, and who is being fooled?

Do you own your body the way you own your shoes?

Then ask: What is different about those two kinds of "mine"?

Will you be the same person when you are old?

Then ask: What would you like to still be true about you?

What do you know about yourself that nobody else can know?

Then ask: Is there anything others know about you that you cannot?

Who should get the most: the one who works hardest or the one who needs it most?

Then ask: Who should decide?

What makes someone a friend and not just someone you know?

Then ask: Can a friendship go only one way?

Do animals have rights?

Then ask: Which rights, and are they the same for a mosquito and a dog?

When is it okay to treat people differently?

Then ask: What is the difference between different and unfair?

Who should make the rules, and what gives them the right?

Then ask: What if you never agreed to the rules?

Do you owe anything to people you will never meet?

Then ask: What about people who are not born yet?

Can you really know what someone else is feeling?

Then ask: What are you going on when you guess?

Is it more important to be liked or to be honest?

Then ask: What do you do when you cannot be both?

If everyone is doing something, does that make it okay?

Then ask: How many people does it take to make a thing right?

Can a group be wrong when every person in it means well?

Then ask: How does that happen?

Does a winner need a loser?

Then ask: Is there a game where everyone can win, and is it still a game?

Where does the past go?

Then ask: Is yesterday real now?

Would there be time if nothing ever changed?

Then ask: How would anyone be able to tell?

Is there a biggest number?

Then ask: What happens when you add one to it?

Can something come from nothing?

Then ask: Where did the idea you just had come from?

Is a pile of sand still a pile after you take away one grain?

Then ask: At which grain does it stop being a pile?

What makes something beautiful?

Then ask: Can people be wrong about what is beautiful?

What makes a thing valuable: what it costs, what it does or who gave it to you?

Then ask: Name something worth a lot to you that nobody would buy.

Does everything need a purpose? What is a mountain for?

Then ask: Who decides what something is for?

Could the world have turned out completely different?

Then ask: What is one thing that had to be the way it is?

Is the sentence "This sentence is false" true or false?

Then ask: What goes wrong when you try to decide?

Is there anything a person can never know?

Then ask: How would we know that we cannot know it?