Is the Teddy Bear's Picnic Logically Consistent?

I’m on holiday this week, so I’m not supposed to be working or thinking about philosophy. However, whilst singing to my daughter I uncovered something that may be of monumental philosophical importance, so I think it’s crucial I share this.

Is a parent of a teddy bear also a teddy bear? If so I think I’ve found a logical contradiction in the Teddy Bears’ Picnic song:

It says that “every bear that ever there was” is present at the picnic. But at the end of the song “their mummies and daddies” pick them up, which would seem to entail that some bears, namely the parents of those present at the picnic, were not at the picnic.

Is there any way of resolving this? Please let me know your thoughts as this really needs to be addressed.

In other news, a recent talk I did at a consciousness conference just went up on my channel. The first 7 minutes outlines my “big picture” view on the problem of consciousness. The rest is a more developed form of my argument that it’s rational to trust psychedelic experiences, exploring different theories of rationality, and raising the question of whether someone who hasn’t had such an experience should trust the testimony of someone who has.

You might be getting the impression that I’m incapable of stopping work, but I am having a lovely time hanging out on my friend George’s farm and being silly with my kids.

Philip Goff@Philip_Goff

This was terrifying!! If I get 10k views, I'll jump from the higher one.

2:25 PM · Jul 19, 2026 · 5.24K Views

9 Replies · 3 Reposts · 76 Likes

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“Galileo’s Error” is my book on consciousness and panpsychism:

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