<p>Young children are usually referred to the sensorimotor- and preoperational stages by <a href="https://psychotherapy.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1979.33.1.107" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Piaget's theory of cognitive development</a>. This means that children don't endow the capability of abstract reasoning and need a reference frame to anchor their thoughts. The formal operational stage starts around 11 years of age which allows abstract thought and the capability of relinquishing frames for thought. You should see Piaget's experiments within this frame of reference. This means more concrete questions that aren't very epistemological.</p>
<p>You should also look into other theories of cognitive development. Let's say Noam Chomsky's theory of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/64892802/What_if_Chomsky_were_right" rel="nofollow noreferrer">LAD</a> which says that children are endowed with a language acquisition machine. Is the machine flawed and not efficient enough? What brain areas could be responsible of LAD? (Broca's or/and Wernicke's Area or the <a href="https://journals.lww.com/neuroreport/Abstract/2003/12020/Connecting_mirror_neurons_and_forward_models.1.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">mirror cells</a>?)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-12T09:16:44.170Z
2023-05-12T09:16:44.170Z
ProtoZone
<p>I find it that children mostly ask questions of types &quot;when&quot;, &quot;why&quot;, &quot;what&quot;,  but rarely question the authority of figure of &quot;how they know?&quot;.</p>
<p>Why is this? Would it be that, there is an innate predisposition to trust the conclusions of authority figures? Further, at what age is it tendencies about asking epistemological questions expected to develop?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-03T02:36:30.730Z
"Why" can be a very vague question. What level of analysis are you looking for as "why"? Additionally, we require questions to be framed in psychology or neuroscience, so it's required to back up your post with something more than "I find".
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-03T02:38:53.920Z
Do you have any tips in framing it better? It's just an intuitive observation I made as a lay eprson
Brian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-03T02:48:48.023Z
It usually helps to read some background on the topic - keywords might be some combination of epistemology, questions, understanding, children.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-03T09:46:06.770Z
how do you know that children often not ask epistemological questions?
Ooker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-23T16:55:58.770Z
@Ooker life experience
Brian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-08T13:59:41.660Z
"How they know" is a pretty "advanced" concept.  It's something that even adults barely ask.  Look at the millions of Americans who vote based simply on what politicians say.  They literally do not entertain the notion that a politician might be lying.  Look at Trump's strong grip over millions of Americans based merely on his promises.
QuietInMontana
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-08T14:09:14.050Z
With respect to children, they lack so much knowledge about the world that they soon learn that asking "why" is frowned upon by their parents and teachers.  They become habituated to blindly memorizing facts.  However, this is a good thing because early on, that's all they should be doing given how little they know.  And, this is why the early schooling they are brainwashed with is so important.  The prefrontal cortex is not the only thing that is hard to change after the mid-20s.
QuietInMontana
<children><epistemology>
Why do children often not ask epistemological questions?
Brian
# Why do children often not ask epistemological questions?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-05-03)

I find it that children mostly ask questions of types "when", "why", "what", but rarely question the authority of figure of "how they know?".

Why is this? Would it be that, there is an innate predisposition to trust the conclusions of authority figures? Further, at what age is it tendencies about asking epistemological questions expected to develop?

**Tags:** children, epistemology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "Why" can be a very vague question. What level of analysis are you looking for as "why"? Additionally, we require questions to be framed in psychology or neuroscience, so it's required to back up your post with something more than "I find".  
> **username_0**: Do you have any tips in framing it better? It's just an intuitive observation I made as a lay eprson  
> **username_1**: It usually helps to read some background on the topic - keywords might be some combination of epistemology, questions, understanding, children.  
> **username_2**: how do you know that children often not ask epistemological questions?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 life experience  
> **username_3**: "How they know" is a pretty "advanced" concept.  It's something that even adults barely ask.  Look at the millions of Americans who vote based simply on what politicians say.  They literally do not entertain the notion that a politician might be lying.  Look at Trump's strong grip over millions of Americans based merely on his promises.  
> **username_3**: With respect to children, they lack so much knowledge about the world that they soon learn that asking "why" is frowned upon by their parents and teachers.  They become habituated to blindly memorizing facts.  However, this is a good thing because early on, that's all they should be doing given how little they know.  And, this is why the early schooling they are brainwashed with is so important.  The prefrontal cortex is not the only thing that is hard to change after the mid-20s.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-05-12. Score: 3

Young children are usually referred to the sensorimotor- and preoperational stages by [Piaget's theory of cognitive development](https://psychotherapy.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1979.33.1.107). This means that children don't endow the capability of abstract reasoning and need a reference frame to anchor their thoughts. The formal operational stage starts around 11 years of age which allows abstract thought and the capability of relinquishing frames for thought. You should see Piaget's experiments within this frame of reference. This means more concrete questions that aren't very epistemological.

You should also look into other theories of cognitive development. Let's say Noam Chomsky's theory of [LAD](https://www.academia.edu/64892802/What_if_Chomsky_were_right) which says that children are endowed with a language acquisition machine. Is the machine flawed and not efficient enough? What brain areas could be responsible of LAD? (Broca's or/and Wernicke's Area or the [mirror cells](https://journals.lww.com/neuroreport/Abstract/2003/12020/Connecting_mirror_neurons_and_forward_models.1.aspx)?)


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