Page - 52 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

52 REfLECTIvE COsMOPOLITANIsM Episode 4 Leading Idea 1: Mental acts In this episode Ella and her classmates are portrayed as engaging in a wide range of mental activi- ties: dreaming, imagining, supposing, assuming, and judging. Mental acts are within our mind. Discussion Plan: Mental acts There are many different mental acts. Try to find out the differences. 1. What is the difference between knowing and believing? 2. What is the difference between imagining and wishing? 3. What is the difference between suspecting and assuming? 4. What is the difference between deciding and believing? 5. What is the difference between knowing and finding out? 6. What is the difference between classifying and judging? 7. What is the difference between remembering and imagining? 8. What is the difference between nocturnal dreaming and daydreaming? 9. What is the difference between understanding and knowing? Leading Idea 2: Dreaming Ella wakes up in the middle of the night because she was dreaming that she was floating over the roofs on a very soft cloud. Having a dialogue on dreaming and thinking can be very fascinating for children, as well as for adults. What happens when you dream? What is dreaming caused by? How is dreaming different from daydreaming? Dreams are a succession of images, ideas, emotions or sensations that come into our mind when we sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation and a subject of scientific interest. When we are dreaming our conscious mind can tune into different aspects of ourselves. Many people see dreams as a mixture of thoughts and images coming from waking ex- periences. But there are many other theories, for example, the research of Sigmund Freud and his depth psychology considered dream events as important sources of information about unconscious modes of experience within people and saw interpretation of dreams as necessary to understanding them. However, in neuroscience dreams are traced back to neural and cognitive processes in the brain, and the interpretation of dreams is not con- sidered necessary to understanding them. Discussion Plan: Dreaming 1. Is it possible to know whether you are dreaming or not? 2. What do people mean when we say “That’s a dreamer”? 3. What is the difference between imagining and dreaming? 4. Can different people have the same dream? 5. Can you influence your dreams? If yes, how? 6. What is the difference between dream and reality? 7. What is a dream? 8. Is there a difference between nocturnal dreaming and daydreaming? 9. Can you dream with your eyes wide open?