How do I know if I’m real? Are my senses fooling me? Am I dreaming or am I really riding this ostrich on top of the White House? Join us as we dig into René Descartes’ Meditations about what truly exists and what is suspect to doubt.
This lesson plan comprises 6 sessions — each of which can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes. Sessions include the following:
- Excerpts from René Descartes’ Meditations On First Philosophy.
- Highlighted keywords and commentary to help clarify as you read.
- Vocabulary exercises.
- Socratic questions to start discussion.
- Break down the Meditations into premises and place them in an Argument Pyramid.
- Consider your own beliefs and create a belief tree. Explore the underpinnings of what you believe.
- Demonstrations of illusions that can fool our senses. What can trick our brain into thinking that something is different from what it seems.
- Understand why Descartes uses an analogy of an evil genius where kids can draw and explain such a scenario.
- A final project that walks kids through how to teach what they have learned to someone else. They will present Descartes’ argument for “I think, therefore I am.”.
- Workbook activities that help solidify concepts learned such as decode the message and a “I think” sudoku.
- Available in printed soft-back or ebook. Both include a link to a printable PDF.
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