Page - 95 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

CHRIsTIAN (MANUAL) 95 7. You have always lived in this neighborhood but you suddenly find out that you were born elsewhere. Are you still from the neighborhood you thought you were from? 8. You think you have always lived in Rondoland (made up country) and you feel Rondolian but you then find out that you were born in another country. Are you still Rondolian? 9. Would you still be the same person? 10. What is more important in being ourselves; the things we choose or the things we don’t? 11. Can you choose where you are from? If you can choose, how? 12. Can you choose where you belong? If you can choose, how? 13. How do we get to be from somewhere? 14. Can we feel we are from somewhere we are not from? 15. Can we feel we belong somewhere we have never been? 16. Can we feel we are something we are not? Exercise: Conditional reasoning or conditional syllogism In the manual to Hanadi you will find a leading idea about syllogism, an explana- tion of the concept, and another exercise. Here in chapter 1, episode 2 of Christian, we have some examples of hypothetical syllogisms or conditional reasoning, and even double syllogisms. Explain to your students what a syllogism is, and try to find where they are in the episode. Those courts are for all the kids in the neighborhood. • Conditional reasoning as first premise: If you are from the neighborhood, then you have the right to play in the courts. • Second premise: José is from the neighborhood. • Consequence: José has the right to play in the courts. Those who were born in the neighborhood are from the neighborhood. • Conditional reasoning as first premise: If you are born in the neighborhood, then you are from the neighborhood. • Second premise: José was born in the neighborhood. • Conclusion: José is from the neighborhood. Special relations are established between several statements or premises from which a consequence is inferred. This kind of game allows us to verify the initial statements and the validity of the relation. This is a very powerful reasoning mechanism used by all kinds of people from a very early age. Most times, we use this mechanism unconsciously and often without verifying the truth in the statements. We must be careful when we invert the sense and maintain the structure in the sentence whilst denying it. The statement, then, does not necessarily have to be true. For example, from the previous syllogisms we can’t say that if you are not born in the neighbor- hood, you are not from the neighborhood, or if you are not from the neighborhood, you don’t have the right to play in the courts. It is interesting to practice the conditional reasoning in this episode. You can find further “resources on reasoning and hypothetical reasoning” in the manual to Hanadi, episode 7, leading idea 1, discussion plans and exercises; and in the manual to Ella, episode 2, leading idea 6, discussion plans and exercises.