Thinking Together to Think Better
This is a philosophical path that experiments with the critical and transformative power of collective thinking. Meetings are dedicated to exploring these key words: communicating, reasoning, deciding, imagining, sharing. This programme is conceived as a ‘training in active citizenship’. It investigates how the ways we think are important building blocks in the construction of the society we belong to.
Theoretical framework
The theoretical background of this educational programme is provided by argumentation theories and the study of logical fallacies, feminist educational theories and intersectional feminist perspectives.
Implementation
Pensare insieme per pensare meglio / Thinking Together to Think Better has been implemented in the form of a three-day summer school for secondary school students (24-26 June, 2024). The project was realised in cooperation with Progetto Giovani, Europe Direct Padova and Verifiche. Associazione di studi filosofici.
Partners
Research projects involved
- InRatio Project (European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101025620; PI: Giovanna Miolli).
Knowing how to communicate is crucial for the quality of our relationships. How can we do this effectively? And how can mindful communication help us manage conflicts? The first section is dedicated to exploring these questions.
Reasoning sounds like a boring business, yet it can become a valuable method to untangle complexity, avoid being fooled and relate positively with others. But what does ‘reasoning’ mean? And how can we do it correctly? In the second section, we will discover the logical errors (the ‘fallacies’) that we make in everyday discussions, when we try to convince someone or want to advance an idea we believe in. By unmasking those errors, we will learn how to formulate correct, effective and clear arguments. We will develop tools to be able to support our ideas and express disagreement without aggression.
Why is it useful to be able to reason? To make decisions, for example. And it is even more useful if the decisions are to be collective. Thanks to what we will have learnt in the first two sections, we will proceed to another level of thought’s complexity: reasoning to take action. In the third meeting we will try an experiment: we will have to decide together how to divide limited resources equally. Will we be able to make a fair distribution, which at the same time takes into account the diversity of people?
Do we like everything we see in our society? Or would we like to change something? Then we should first be able to imagine it. The fourth section will be dedicated to understanding together how we can generate social transformation and what we would like to intervene in. We will divide into small groups, in which we will try to come up with proposals for concrete action to improve our social environment.
Looking back on our work together, we will reflect on how we related to each other, how we shared ideas and handled disagreements. What worked and what went wrong? Has something changed in our way of thinking? Can the dynamics and processes that worked be integrated into our daily practices?
