Albert’s Impossible Toothache (1974) by Barbara Williams

Authors

Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Files

Description

Albert is a turtle, who complains that he has a toothache. Albert’s father is quite unsympathetic. “That’s impossible,” he says; “it is impossible for anyone in our family to have a toothache.” Though Albert’s father does point to his own toothless mouth (does he also point to its toothlessness?) to establish the impossibility of a turtle’s having a toothache, he never actually says to Albert, “To have a toothache you need to have a tooth and turtles don’t have teeth.”

Publication Date

1990

Publisher

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

City

Montclair

Keywords

pain, phantom pain, philosophy for children, teeth, turtles

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education | Education | Philosophy

Comments

Oritingally published inThinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 2(1): 3, 1980. URL = https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/thinking_journal_philosophy_children/4/.

See also Matthews'

Recommended Citation

Matthews, Gareth B., "Albert’s Impossible Toothache (1974) by Barbara Williams" (1990). Picture Books. 48.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/iapc_thinkingstories_picturebooks/48