Page - 50 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

50 REfLECTIvE COsMOPOLITANIsM To respect diversity in a society we need open minded people. Therefore we must be self – critical and acknowledge our level of awareness and sensitivity. “United in diversity” is the official motto of the European Union. What does it mean and what are its aims? How can we live out diversity? What are the benefits of diversity for society? Can we all be different and be treated equally? And how can we do that? You can find further resources for the concept of “diversity” in the manual to Chris- tian, episode 13, leading idea 1, discussion plan “Me in plurality, in diversity”. Discussion Plan: Diversity 1. What are the advantages of living in a diverse community? 2. Why should we pay attention to issues of diversity? 3. What does diversity mean? 4. How does diversity happen? 5. What is diversity? Leading Idea 3: Remember Saif remembers his friend Abdu. What do we do when we remember? Does it just happen that memories come into our mind? Or does it sometimes take a lot of effort to remember? Do we have control over this process? In discussing remembering with your students, you can get them to focus on a very specific mental act. Discussion Plan: Remembering 1. Do you think that there are things in your memory that you want to remember right now and you can’t remember them? 2. What are your first memories of your life that you can think of? 3. Can you remember something without trying? 4. What would happen if you were not able to remember anything? 5. Can you remember anything you want? 6. Can you remember a situation in a certain way while other people remember the same situation very differently? 7. Have you ever wondered about how and why you remember? Leading Idea 4: Underlying assumptions Assumptions are beliefs or ideas that we hold as being true often with little or no evidence. When we see or hear something, or when we make choices, we often take some ideas for granted. But some assumptions we make are perfectly reasonable; for example, that someone who sneezed has a cold. But we sometimes make assumptions that we don’t have reason to believe, or the reasons to belief are false. We are often unaware of assump- tions. The skill of uncovering assumptions helps us to become aware of assumptions that others or ourselves make. So we can ask ourselves: “Do I have reasons for thinking that this assumption is correct?” We should learn to be able to specify the assumptions that underlie a particular statement, where the truth of the statement is contingent upon as- sumptions.