Thinking Like Descartes

A few weeks back Em came downstairs to let me know he had been thinking.  "How do I know that I exist?" he asked me.  He went on to say, "I mean, maybe when I'm dreaming that is what is real and now I'm really dreaming."  I looked up from doing the dishes and explained that there were many people in the past who wondered the same thing.  I know that we pondered this question in Intro to Philosophy and I even included reference to it in my law school entrance essay but at age six?  No, at age six I was not thinking about this.  If Em is thinking about this now, I only can imagine what he'll be wondering as a teen or a young adult.  I guess I just want to keep his ability to wonder alive and I wonder whether I am doing enough to do so....I hope so....I know that if society is going to move forward then it is not enough for schooling to only ask kids to learn and rehearse what is already known....we need to encourage and support true inquiry and exploration of that which is yet unknown to move forward....