Descartes and the Renaissance
I’m doing this mini-internship in a college this semester and I have to teach a two-part lesson about Descartes and the method. Part 1 will be a bit shorter since I have to give them a test at the beginning of class. The test is about Descartes’ Discourse, which they had to read, so I’ll be sure they that have at list a bit of an idea of what I’m talking about.
Here’s my lesson plan for now.
Part 1: Skepticism and the rejection of dogmatism
First there’s an intro on science vs dogma before modernity. Then probably a chat about Galileo or Bruno. Then the Enlightenment and humanism, which will lead to the importance of scientific inquiry. Then two activities will have the student criticize naive empiricism and naive rationalism, in favor of a rational and empirical method of inquiry.
Activity 1 - Should you trust your senses?
Objective: realize that our perceptions are influenced by previous knowledge, develop skeptical thinking.
I’m trying to find a fun illusion where there is some top-down perception effect to demonstrate that. I thought of showing that very cool video with the basketball players and a gorilla, but it’s copyrighted and very expensive. Maybe an ambiguous or degraded figure.
Activity 2 - Should you trust your our mind?
Objective: realize that even “pure thinking” can lead to improbable and absurd results if it is not guided by a rational methodology.
I’ve prepared an estimation quiz that the students have to answer, e.g. what’s the height of the Eifell tower, how many bones in the human body, how many dots in a drawing I’m showing, etc. Everybody suck at that kind of quiz.
I will then show them that with a method they could have gotten much closer to the actual results. I hope it will prove that with no method you can’t really gain reliable knowledge.
Descartes and the method (plus feedback on the exam)
We will then pull out our Descartes’ Discourse and see wheat he had to say about doubt, dogma and the scientific method.
At the same time, I’ll give the answers to the test so they get an idea of their score. By then, they have to be absolutely thrilled to hear about scientific inquiry and leave class wanting to know everything about it.
Tags: Descartes, dogmatism, humanism, scientific method, skepticism
Category: teaching Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg
Leave a comment
