Philosophy Journal

This week we studied 5 philosophical texts disguised as children's stories. I would not read many of these stories to my children, because after analyzing them philosophically, they are corrupt according to Epicurean principles.

• Laura Numeroff: The mouse in this story asks for a cookie- something he

wants, but that does not satisfy his pleasure. The mouse then asks for all sorts of other stuff. This mouse is a brat - he is never satisfyed and always wants more pleasure. This is not Epicurean because the pleasure is temporary, and not beneficial to the individual. In the end, the mouse isn't happy.

• Arnold Lobel: In this story, there is a frog and a toad. The toad makes cookies and then wants to eat them ALL! Frog and toad sit around the cookies and eat until they are almost sick. They decide that they need some "willpower" and try to hide the cookies from themselves, but it doesn't work - all they can think about is cookies. This is not Epicurean because frog and toad are not pleased with just one cookie - they always want more, and more, and more!


• Leo Lionni: While this story ended up with a happy-somewhatEpicurean-ending, the behavior of the frogs previosuly was anything but. Each frog claimes a piece of the land to itself; one took the earth, one took the water, and one took the air. Even though they had their own area, they always fought about boundaries and yelled constantly. These frogs are not Epicurean because they try to find pleasure in the wrong ways (for example, stealing and claiming land).