A long-held intellectual tradition states that children's early fantasy life is primitive and disorganized. The author aims to show that children's ability to imagine hypothetical and counterfactual possibilities makes a continuing contribution to their cognitive and emotional development.[...]
If children were little scientists who learn best through firsthand observations and mini-experiments, as conventional wisdom holds, how would a child discover that the earth is round - never mind conceive of heaven as a place someone might go after death? Overturning both cognitive and commonplace [...]