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Concept
Lie-to-children
Résumé
A lie-to-children is a simplified, but false, explanation of technical or complex subjects as a teaching method for children and laypeople. The technique has been incorporated by academics within the fields of biology, evolution, bioinformatics and the social sciences. It is closely related to the philosophical concept known as Wittgenstein's ladder.
The "lie-to-children" concept was first discussed by scientist Jack Cohen and mathematician Ian Stewart in the 1994 book The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World. They further elaborated upon their views in their coauthored 1997 book Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind. The concept gained greater exposure when they collaborated with popular author Terry Pratchett, discussing "lies-to-children" in the book The Science of Discworld (1999).
Cohen and Stewart discussed "lies-to-children" and the desire inherent in society for a view of simplicity with regard to complex concepts in their 1994 book The Collapse of Chaos.
Stewart and Cohen wrote in Figments of Reality (1997) that the lie-to-children concept reflected the difficulty inherent in reducing complex concepts during the education process. Stewart and Cohen noted reality itself was viewed within the prism of human perspective: "Any description suitable for human minds to grasp must be some type of lie-to-children—real reality is always much too complicated for our limited minds."
Librarian and editor Andrew Sawyer discussed the "lie-to-children" concept introduced by scientists Cohen and Stewart in their early two non-fiction books. Sawyer wrote: "In The Collapse of Chaos and Figments of Reality, we also come across the concept of 'lies-to-children'—the necessarily simplified stories we tell children and students as a foundation for understanding so that eventually they can discover that they are not, in fact, true."
The definition given in The Science of Discworld (1999) is as follows: "A lie-to-children is a statement that is false, but which nevertheless leads the child's mind towards a more accurate explanation, one that the child will only be able to appreciate if it has been primed with the lie".
Source officielle
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