Thoughts About Knowing

Personhood Curriculum

7th Grade
Egocentricity Lesson #2
"Thoughts About Knowing"
"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away."
Lesson Plan
aphg8-13

Teaching Goals

The difference between knowing through observation and reasoning, and "knowing" through feelings.

Teacher Prep

Print this, for you to read to the students: Thoughts About Knowing - - - knowing.rtf
Make copies for the students.
Print "What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." - - - foolsees.htm
Make a projection transparency from it. Project it before students enter.
Use a Participation Record. Use it to cycle through students during discussion. Use Directed Discussions. Do not accept the first correct answer - continue questioning students until a concensus develops, then varify it.
Write the words "egocentric" and "egocentricity" on the board.

Class Time

Project the slide
"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away."

Introduction

In a few minutes I will give you a real life and rather dramatic example of "What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." It illustrates egocentric thinking to-the-max.

In this lesson we will study in some deapth what it means, and some of the thought patterns inside peoples' heads which lead to this thinking error. It also covers thought patterns you can learn that help you avoid egocentric thinking.

Relevancy

The egocentric style of thinking should be understood and AVOIDED in yourself!!!

If you fall into this pattern of thinking, other people will look at you and think something like:

"Have you lost your mind?"
"Why can't you listen?"
"You are not logical!"
"Are you brain-dead?"
"I can't trust this person!"

These are definitly not good!

Presentation

I am going to read an essay. Please take notes in order to hear better and learn better. Remember how we worked on taking notes last year? Start taking notes now. I will wait for you to get pencil and paper.

Look for and note the kinds of mistakes the Egocentric person makes. What is the big error an egocentric person makes? Also look for how to overcome it.

When I am finished reading I will be using a Participation Record and Directed Discussion. I will ask about what thinking pattern errors an egocentric person makes.

Also, I hope some of you can tell us about someone you have known who is like what the essay describes. Have you ever seen anyone do those things?

Read essay Thoughts About Knowing

Discussion

What kinds of mistakes do Egocentric persons make? (Keep a count of each the correct answers below. If any missed, provide themat the end.)

They often believe what they feel they know is the absolute truth.
They believe that whatever they think is the absolute truth.
No amount of logic can change their minds.
If you disagree with them, then (in their mind) you are OBVIOUSLY WRONG, so they are free to simply ignor your arguments!
If your thoughts are different than theirs, they tend to not listen. (Why listen when they think you are wrong even before hearing you out?)

What is the biggest error an egocentric person makes?

They believe that whatever they think is the absolute truth.
How can you overcome it in your own mind?
To overcome a feeling of certainty you have about something, you can think like this:

I feel this is true.

I am a human therefore I am capable of being wrong.

A feeling is not reliable.

A feeling can lead me away from the truth.

I want to actually be correct in this, so I need proof.

Can I come up with OBJECTIVE evidence that it is NOT true?

Can I come up with OBJECTIVE evidence that it is true? If I can't, then I should look for a different "truth!"

This is an open discussion. Have you ever known anyone like the essay describes? Have you ever seen anyone do those things? What did they do or say? No names please!

Periodically
Teacher Follow-up
Do you feel it is so, or do you know it is so? - - - How do you know?

Page TOP
Advanced Personhood Sequence. Links to grade 8 Lesson Plans.
Return to Advanced Personhood Lesson Sequence - - - Master Contents

As of: 30 May 2004