Page - 63 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

ELLA (MANUAL) 63 Some children might have very different concepts of what it means to be a “friend” and what it means to “be friends with.” Some children might think that they do not have any friends, maybe only their dog or their cat. Others might think that all of their classmates are friends because they share experiences with them and do not want to exclude anyone. Like Dina, the Greek philosopher Aristotle thought about the question “How do you know who your friends are?” He describes three different types of friendship based on usefulness, pleasure and moral goodness. You can find further resources for the concept of “friendship” in Tina & Amir, episode 3, leading Idea 4, discussion plan “Friendship” and in the manual to Christian, episode 1, leading idea 2, discussion plan and exercise on “Friendship/Comradeship”. Exercise: Friendship The Greek philosopher Aristotle describes three different types of friendship. a. Can you find your own examples for the different types of friendship Aristotle is referring to? Friendship based on • usefulness • pleasure • moral goodness b. Discuss in small groups why friendship is important. c. Each group should then try to find characteristics that all friendships have in common. d. Then try to find out if there are different kinds of friendships. Discussion Plan: Differences and similarities Being aware of similarities and differences is a fundamental cognitive process. Through similarities and differences we can: find out patterns and make connec- tions, classify and compare things, identify features and characteristics of objects, and we can develop a scheme and organize them. You can compare things that are similar and compare things that express differences. Exercise: Differences and similarities Together we want to discover the array of meanings that a word can have – we can do this when we use words in different contexts. This way, we become more aware of the conceptual differences within groups of words. Example: differed, differ, difference, differing, difference 1. My painting is quite different than yours. (dissimilar) 2. She put a black sock and a blue sock on because she did not see their differ- ence. (distinctiveness) 3. The man had tattoos on his arms. He really looked different. (unusual) 4. Why do you and your sister always have to differ? (disagree) Example: similar, similarities 1. The twins really look similar. I cannot tell which one is Peter and which one is Paul. (alike) 2. Did you discover similarities between these essays? a. Build small groups. b. Let each of your students construct sentences with the same words. c. Let them find some synonyms that could replace them.