Investigating the Age Range for Realization of Understanding Secondary Philosophical Intelligibles in Children

The present article aims at investigating and specifying the proper age range of the children to understand the secondary philosophical intelligibles. The study is a combined one conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. We used qualitative method in explaining the mode of perceiving philosophical concepts and the process of perceiving rational and philosophical concepts in the 6 years old children, and used quantitative method for specifying the extent to which 6 years old children perceive philosophical concepts. The statistical population consisted of 24 girls and 18 boys.
First, we found out when (i.e. in what age range) the three orders of theoretical intellect (potential intellect, habitual intellect and actual intellect) are realized; and then, accordingly, we investigated how children perceive various concepts in their childhood and when the perception of secondary philosophical intelligibles is realized. Finally, the extent to which children realize philosophical concepts in that age range is investigated.
The findings show that children, in the stage of potential intellect, cannot perceive general conceptions. In the stage of habitual intellect, they perceive primary intelligibles such as tree, horse, mountain, and house; and in the stage of actual intellect, they perceive secondary philosophical concepts such as existence, nothingness, essence, reason and time. To analyze the data, we used Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and Chi-square test; considering the evidences, we found that 6 years old children obtain the actual intellect and are able to perceive philosophical concepts.