How can you not like the handsome and gullible Winnie the Pooh? My daughter loves him and can't get enough of his adventures. I should know! I have to read the many stories to her everyday in which I don't mind. I am a kid myself in many ways and am always fascinated with cartoons, children stories, and folklore tales.

but wait....

What does this have to do with philosophy? Hold it moderators don't scratch this thread and send it to the coffee chat forum! I am not drinking coffee okay. lol

Winnie the Pooh was truly a philosophist in his own sense.

Answer the follow questions and compare the humble bear's thoughts with other philosophers and how they used their technics and idealogies when it comes to debates.


1. Pooh likes to use the technique of feigned ignorance, in order to make people clarify their own thoughts. Which other philosopher used this technique?

Anaximander
Aristotle
Socrates
Plato



2. Pooh writes a song with the line "I'll have a little something in an hour or two" but then abandons it, because the last line will soon stop being true, when it becomes time for the Little Something. Which other philosopher had similar views on poetry?

John Stuart Mill
Nietzsche
Plato
Aristotle



3. Christopher Robin's quest for Education, towards the end of "The House at Pooh Corner" is in stark contrast with Pooh's outlook. Pooh is clearly not an educated Bear, knowing nothing about Kings and Queens, Knights, Europe, Factors or Suction Pumps. However, he does have an inborn wisdom, and an ability to do the right thing. Which European philosopher also described this innate wisdom?

Descartes
Nietzsche
Spinoza
John Stuart Mill



4. Pooh's world is peaceful and happy, despite there being no ruler, leader, government or laws. The animals work together in the Search for Small and in the quest for the North Pole, and generally treat each other with respect, kindness and love. This is a direct contradiction of which philosopher, who believed such a world was not possible?

Hobbes
Descartes
Rousseau
Leibniz



5. Pooh takes a jar of honey to put in the Cunning Trap for Heffalumps. However, he decides to check first that it is really honey. "It had HUNNY written on it, but just to make sure, he took off the paper cover and looked at it, and it looked just like honey. 'But you never can tell,' said Pooh. 'I remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just this colour.' So he put his tongue in and took a large lick." He proceeds to taste right down to the bottom of the jar, in case "somebody put cheese at the bottom just for a joke." Which philosophical tradition is Pooh illustrating here?

rationalism
stoicism
existentialism
empiricism



6. Casual readers may think that Pooh's birthday gift to Eeyore of an empty pot may be careless, or selfish (Pooh having first eaten the honey contained in it.) However, Pooh states several times that this will be a Useful Pot to keep things in, and Eeyore is delighted with his gift. Which philosopher would heartily agree that a Useful Pot is an ideal gift?

Ayn Rand
John Stuart Mill
Martin Heidegger
Thomas Hobbes



7. There are several situations in the Pooh stories where Pooh, and indeed the other characters, use the principle of Falsifiability to test a hypothesis. Pooh uses this when he tastes the honey to make sure it isn't cheese, and when he tests whether a jar can float. Piglet uses it when he checks the trap for Heffalumps, and Tigger uses it while searching for Breakfast. Which philosopher inspired their reasoning?

Martin Heidegger
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Immanuel Kant
Karl Popper



8. At the beginning of "The House at Pooh Corner", Pooh visits Piglet, but "to his surprise he saw that the door was open, and the more he looked inside, the more Piglet wasn't there." Which philosopher used a very similar example to illustrate his theory of alienation and Nothingness?

Bertrand Russell
Nietzsche
Sartre
Confucious



9. Pooh is not only an expert in Western philosophy. He is also a perfect illustration of some Eastern principles. Which philosophy includes the principle of P'u, which not only sounds like Pooh, but also describes him?

Confucianism
Shintoism
Buddhism
Taoism



10. Another feature of the philosophy in question 9 is illustrated perfectly by Pooh, who achieves success when he acts spontaneously, without thinking. He finds his way out of the mist by listening to "twelve pots of honey in my cupboard... calling to me." What principle best describes this ability?

T'ai Chi Ch'uan
T'ai Hsu
Wu Wei
Tzu Jan

One can also just go to this site to answer the questions

Here is the link - http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz98531b49f70.html

OMG!!!!! I have this theory about winnie the pooh!

Have you ever watched the Grand Adventure movie? My theory is that its an old man remembering his childhood.

The tree looks like a brain... and Christopher robin come to see pooh... but I really think its the memories of an old man reflecting on his life!

I think I have read and watched everything from Winnie the Pooh because my daughter is a big fan. She insists I participate in everything she does, and I don't mind. I actually learn new things each and everyday with her. I am also a barbie doll expert incase you need advice.

but your theory is interesting indeed

And I think that all the characters are different parts of the old man's personality (the old man being the narrator).

As usual smiless puts a smile to my face!

There is The Tao of Pooh and another of Piglet too.


Whoops, it's The Te of Piglet


sorry 'bout that

I have one thing in common with pooh. I too like to cuddle

*giggles*




I love love love Winnie the Pooh...

and Tigger too...

and lil Piglet...


I read them to my children all the time!!

I have "The Tao of Pooh" and "The Te of Piglet", both interesting reads if one wants to explore Toaism.

Very clever! With a few corrections:



1. Pooh likes to use the technique of feigned ignorance, in order to make people clarify their own thoughts. Which other philosopher used this technique?

Socrates, but it's not feigned ignorance what Pooh practices. He practices docile gullibility, he pracices the role he was forced to play by his peers, he practices true modesty, because it is impossible for him to be immodest, since he sincerely belives and openly advocates he is not very smart.


3. Christopher Robin's quest for Education, towards the end of "The House at Pooh Corner" is in stark contrast with Pooh's outlook. Pooh is clearly not an educated Bear, knowing nothing about Kings and Queens, Knights, Europe, Factors or Suction Pumps. However, he does have an inborn wisdom, and an ability to do the right thing. Which European philosopher also described this innate wisdom?

(This is another thing I enjoy tremendously about Pooh's personality.)



4. Pooh's world is peaceful and happy, despite there being no ruler, leader, government or laws. The animals work together in the Search for Small and in the quest for the North Pole, and generally treat each other with respect, kindness and love. This is a direct contradiction of which philosopher, who believed such a world was not possible?

Hobbes, but the description is inaccurate. The animals in Milne's Pooh books don't work. Christopher Robin is the undisputed authority, decision-maker, crowd-rouser (to find the North Pole, etc.), instigator (Let's save Piglet in the flood, let's save Tigger and Roo off the tall pines). Christorpher Robin is the kind, benevolent ruler, who worries about his subjects' well-being. He designs ways to save the animals, he even worries without concrete evidence of suffering (he orgainzes Tigger to help him find the three lost in the mist, he worries about Piglet in the flood, he organizes the moving of Owl out of his cabin that was destroyed by the storm).

It is questionable whether the animals work together to find Small; they are very obviously working at the same task, but completely independently from each other. No cooperation. The search for the North Pole -- there is no work there, and the saving of Roo from the stream is similarly an individual effort by each.

In fact the entire community does not go against each other's throats only because most of them are hervacuous, or cadavre-eaters; the only hunter is forced to a diet of cod-liver oil; and this carnivore's blood thirstiness is kept at bay with gentle societal pressure, and keeping it down to rambunctiousness and mild wildness explained even to the perpetrator as an age- and emotional developmental thing.

There is more hidden and understated strife than love, respect and kindness. In fact, the lack of these positive feelings provide the basis for all the plots in the chapters, as all the stories are purely character-driven. Piglet fears Tigger, Roo is impudent with Owl, Kanga is fearsomely protective of Roo, Eeyore is venomously vengeful and full of repressed anger, etc., etc. Piglet looks down on Pooh, Owl deceitfully gives the air that he is literate, Rabbit is void of any compassion or empathy in his highly accented goal-orientation.




5. Pooh takes a jar of honey to put in the Cunning Trap for Heffalumps. However, he decides to check first that it is really honey. "It had HUNNY written on it, but just to make sure, he took off the paper cover and looked at it, and it looked just like honey. 'But you never can tell,' said Pooh. 'I remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just this colour.' So he put his tongue in and took a large lick." He proceeds to taste right down to the bottom of the jar, in case "somebody put cheese at the bottom just for a joke." Which philosophical tradition is Pooh illustrating here?

empiricism

But of course it was not a proof that Pooh needed to convince himself that the jar contained honey, but he instead needed an excuse to eat all the honey in the jar. His behaviour was motivated by a need to rationalize his greedy, selfish act. The philosophical trend he displayed did not start as philosophy but a clutch to help him escape guilt.


6. Casual readers may think that Pooh's birthday gift to Eeyore of an empty pot may be careless, or selfish (Pooh having first eaten the honey contained in it.) However, Pooh states several times that this will be a Useful Pot to keep things in, and Eeyore is delighted with his gift. Which philosopher would heartily agree that a Useful Pot is an ideal gift?

Ayn Rand
John Stuart Mill
Martin Heidegger
Thomas Hobbes
Sigmund Freud

I added Freud who would say that the empty jar was a vagina-symbol, and indeed very useful to sublimate desires that present to people at an age when sexual desires would otherwise be meaningless and unprocessable.


8. At the beginning of "The House at Pooh Corner", Pooh visits Piglet, but "to his surprise he saw that the door was open, and the more he looked inside, the more Piglet wasn't there." Which philosopher used a very similar example to illustrate his theory of alienation and Nothingness?

Bertrand Russell
Nietzsche
Sartre
Confucious

I don't know by rights, but "alienation and Nothingness" have gotta be Sartre. I could say Nietzsche as well, but "alienation" was coined by Sartre.

10. Another feature of the philosophy in question 9 is illustrated perfectly by Pooh, who achieves success when he acts spontaneously, without thinking. He finds his way out of the mist by listening to "twelve pots of honey in my cupboard... calling to me." What principle best describes this ability?

This was a serious factual error. He claimed he could find his way out, but Tigger finds him and Piglet before he could go any distance in any direction.

There was no evidence other than the claim, that the pots of honey called out to Pooh. It may have been the Eastern thing, or it may have been more likely a poetic expression as a way of saying "I'm hungry and I can put my mind to finding the way home because I'm reeeeally motivated." Don't ever forget that Pooh was a poet before anything else, such as being a Tao follower, a Visigoth or a Hassidic Jew. Really, now, it's one thing to admire him, but it's another thing to claim him as a member of the tribe one otherwise belongs to, and it's also wrong to falsify his actions and motivations. He's Buddha already, he's god, you cannot make a god any more god than what he or she already is. And you must not try, either. It's blasphemy, against him or her, and against all other gods.

Sorry, duplication of post -- I'm editing for typos and errors and I made the error of clicking on "reply" instead of on "edit". My apologies.

It seems that just because the adventures are chock full of philosophy does not make Pooh a philosopher, just a lovable little guy?

What is the criteria for a 'true' philosoher?

Someone who takes themselves overly serious?

That's probably the only real difference here.

You tell me.

Wow wux! You put some considerable time into this and very interesting replies at that. Thank you for doing that. Very educational

Creative don't pick on Winnie the Pooh or I will get my 8 year old daughter on you and you don't want that!

Thanks Smiles!! I appreciate your acknowledgement. Winnie-the-Pooh has been a formative and formidably giant influence on my philosophy and literary appreciation. It is the first work of literature I encountered; my mother used to read the chapters to me beginning when I was four.

For me, all other literature, humanistic philosophy and realistic spiritualism are mere footnotes to Winnie-the-Pooh. And everything else, those things I did not list in the previous sentence, do not matter at all when you think hard about it.

I am lying. Creating theories, writing poetry or stories, building things from scratch, listening to music and making love to one you love are almost at par with Winnie-the-Pooh.

I find the strength of the books in that the stories and the humour and the subtext are all seamlessly harmonized. The plot, the humour, the spirit of the text all enhance each other without encroaching on the other's territory, and they build a superstructure of almost infinite complexity while they keep their full integrity and individuality. ("They" being the spirit, the humour and the plot of the books.)


For me, Winnie-the-Pooh books are second only to Mom's memory in their sacrosancticy.

Therefore putting the time and thought into my reply was pure and unadulterated joy, and not a chore, not at all.

"Which philosopher would heartily agree that a Useful Pot is an ideal gift? "

Answer: Pot Pol. To the people of Myanmar. (He was wrong.)

Pooh is cool and unassuming! Why would you think that I was picking on him?