‘All men have opinions, but few think’ wrote the eighteenth-century Irish philosopher, George Berkerley (Barnes, 1987, p.24). This thesis adds a distinctive voice to educational research by investigating young children's actual and potential ability to think philosophically. It is distinctive for two reasons. Firstly, the research focuses on the innovative pedagogical practice called Thinking Time’. Secondly, it relates this practice to the work of the early Ionian philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Xenophanes, to find instructive parallels between children’s thoughts and those of these philosophers. The thesis explores the thinking of the Ionian philosophers and the myths from which it emerged through a range of primary and secondary sources. And it accesses young children’s thinking through generating transcripts of taped sessions of Thinking Time’ which it analyses in the light of a discussion of the works of some pertinent educational theorists. The thinking of the children is brought in concert with the thoughts of the first natural philosophers in Western society to illuminate the practice of Thinking Time’. The import of the study for wider policy and practice in the area of early childhood education is highlighted.