Q0274

Alfred North Whitehead

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

In the Garden of Eden Adam saw the animals before he named them: in the traditional system, children named the animals before they saw them.
Thinker Alfred North Whitehead
School Education
Source The Aims of Education
Theme Education
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Aims of Education, within the tradition of Education. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of education, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Alfred North Whitehead's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Alfred North Whitehead. (n.d.). In the Garden of Eden Adam saw the animals before he named them: in the traditional system, children named the animals before they saw them. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0274

MLA: Alfred North Whitehead. “In the Garden of Eden Adam saw the….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0274.

Chicago: Alfred North Whitehead. “In the Garden of Eden Adam saw the….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0274.

Same thinker

More from Alfred North Whitehead

  1. The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.
  2. The many become one, and are increased by one.
  3. The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
  4. Seek simplicity and distrust it.

All quotations by Alfred North Whitehead

Same theme

More on education

  1. The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs kindling.
  2. Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
  3. Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling.
  4. Better a well-made head than a well-filled head.
  5. Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.

Browse the education theme