About Homer. There was a post (in Russian) that compared the mythology of Greeks (safely seen as ‘huh, the guys had it wrong so many times, there are no apples to make you eternally young etc.’) and contemporaries (‘there are miracle formulae that will get you to be in just as great physical shape as you were at 20 years old.) The main idea was that the same visions still are percolated under different names. So if you teach ancient texts in the ‘recognizing myths in your own thinking’ context, it might be a real help.
In many cases people get more confident about their own beliefs if they see errors in other peoples reasoning. That’s why smarter Republicans who are better at spotting errors are more likely to be climate skeptics than dumber Republicans.
About Homer. There was a post (in Russian) that compared the mythology of Greeks (safely seen as ‘huh, the guys had it wrong so many times, there are no apples to make you eternally young etc.’) and contemporaries (‘there are miracle formulae that will get you to be in just as great physical shape as you were at 20 years old.) The main idea was that the same visions still are percolated under different names. So if you teach ancient texts in the ‘recognizing myths in your own thinking’ context, it might be a real help.
Unfortuantely seeing errors in other peoples thinking often doesn’t transfer to seeing them in your own thinking.
But seeing errors in others is often the first step
In many cases people get more confident about their own beliefs if they see errors in other peoples reasoning. That’s why smarter Republicans who are better at spotting errors are more likely to be climate skeptics than dumber Republicans.