Page - 65 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

ELLA (MANUAL) 65 6. Can words be false? 7. Can sentences be true or false? Exercise: Words and their meaning 1. Find words that have the same meaning! For example: Different - dissimilar 2. Find words that have the opposite meaning- find opposite pairs! For example: Small - big 3. Look for words that have different meanings! For example: Mouse – as animal/ a device to use on a computer 4. Do you know words with multiple meanings? Leading Idea 4: Identity It is important to distinguish between the philosophical concept of identity and the notion of identity which is in use in psychology and the social science. The philosophical concept concerns a relation. A famous principle of identity states that: “A thing is what is and not something else.” It is the sameness – the relation each thing bears just to itself. But what does it mean for an object to be the same as itself? If an object’s part are entirely replaced over time, as in the Ship of Theseus example, in what way is it the same. The notion of identity gives rise to many philosophical problems and questions also about change and personal identity over time. Ludwig Wittgenstein writes ”That identity is not a relation between objects is obvious.” (Tractatus 5.5301) and further, he explores: “Roughly speaking: to say of two things that are identical is nonsense and to say, of one thing that is identical with itself is to say nothing.” (Tractatus 5.5303) In psychology and social science, identity is a person´s conception and expression of their own cultural identity, gender identity, national identity, online identity, etc. You can find further resources for the concept of “identity” in the manual to Christian, episode 13, leading idea 1, discussion plan “Me in plurality, in diversity”. Discussion plan: Identity 1. Are you always the same? 2. Can you change? 3. Could you change your identity? 4. Can we build identity? 5. Who you are? How do you identify yourself? 6. Is there something like “family identity”? 7. What do you think about your cultural identity? 8. The United States has been called a “melting-pot”. What does it mean? 9. Is there something like an American identity if there are living people with so many different identi¬ties? 10. Are there benefits, chances and risks of living with people with different ethnic identities?