Teaching understanding and human ethics: Edgar Morin's final lessons 2026

Teaching understanding is the sixth of Edgar Morin's seven knowledges for the education of the future, and he treats it as one of the most urgent tasks facing humanity. In this final part of our series, we look at what understanding really involves and why it must become a goal of education rather than a happy accident.

Morin separates intellectual understanding, which covers ideas, texts and systems, from human intersubjective understanding, which concerns ourselves and other people. The second kind is the harder one, and it is where most of our failures begin.

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We then move to his seventh knowledge, the ethics of the human race, which for Morin can only flourish in a democracy. Here is what these two ideas mean in practice for families.

Quick takeaways

• Understanding has two halves: intellectual grasp and human empathy.
• External obstacles include noise, ambiguous words and unfamiliar customs.
• Inner obstacles include contempt, self-justification and absolute certainty.
• Self-examination is the practical route to understanding other people.
• Literature and film teach the complexity of human nature.
• Democracy needs diverse ideas and must be taught, not assumed.

Teaching understanding: two kinds of comprehension

For Edgar Morin, understanding is not a single skill but two connected ones. Intellectual understanding lets a child grasp an idea, a text, a whole system or an abstract concept. Human understanding is intersubjective: it is about making sense of yourself and of other people.

Morin insists that understanding always involves empathy, identification and projection. It requires openness, sympathy and generosity, which means it cannot be taught as a dry technique. A child who learns to decode a text but never learns to imagine another person's position has only half the skill.

Parents can support both sides at once. Reading stories together and asking "what do you think she felt?" trains intellectual and human understanding in the same moment, and it costs nothing. Well-chosen children's apps can reinforce this at home, just as LEGO color choices can prompt children to think about another person's perspective. Even large celebrity families show how everyday moments of empathy add up.

The obstacles that block understanding

Morin lists external obstacles that parents can name and explain to children. Noise and interference stop information getting through; a single word can carry several meanings; and we often ignore the customs, values and moral imperatives of another person or simply cannot follow their view of the world.

Then come the inner obstacles, which are harder to see. Indifference and contempt, egocentrism, lying to yourself, self-justification, self-glorification, ethnocentrism and sociocentrism all close the door. So do the inability to criticise yourself, the habit of manufacturing culprits, and being possessed by an idea that gives absolute certainty of its own truth.

Naming these out loud, calmly and without blame, gives a child a vocabulary for what went wrong in an argument. It turns a vague "you weren't listening" into something specific and fixable. Just as real motherhood movies show conflict from both sides, naming an obstacle helps a child see the whole situation. Stories like stories about the sea can also open conversations about different points of view.

Self-examination as the road to understanding others

Morin argues that failure to understand yourself is a major source of failure to understand others. We hide our own weaknesses from ourselves, and that blindness makes us merciless about the weaknesses of other people.

His remedy is a permanent mental practice of self-examination. Understanding our own gaps is the path to understanding the gaps in others, and it stops us setting ourselves up as judges of everything.

In family life this can be a simple routine: a short evening check-in where each person names one thing they found hard that day. It is not a confession and needs no punishment attached.

Art, conviction and learning to relearn

Morin says literature and cinema help us grasp the complexity of human nature, and that art offers some of the greatest life lessons we can receive. A film about a difficult family can do more than a lecture on empathy.

He is careful, though: real understanding is not indifference or scepticism. It supposes a conviction, a faith and an ethical choice, while accepting that contrary ideas and choices must be expressed too.

Understanding is also something we learn and relearn endlessly. Children change fast, and so do the situations they face, so the conversation never really closes.

The ethics of the human race and the democratic bet

The seventh knowledge is the ethics of the human race, which Morin says can only be fulfilled within democracy. This ethic is conscious, civic and active, and it rests on a wager made in uncertainty rather than on guaranteed outcomes.

Morin draws a striking parallel: just as we protect the diversity of species to safeguard the biosphere, we must protect the diversity of ideas, opinions and information sources to safeguard democratic life. A household that only ever hears one viewpoint is a small rehearsal for that loss, which is why cheap family board games can teach turn-taking and fair play, much like shared bedtime stories open children to other perspectives.

He also warns against "politics in pieces", where public life dissolves into administration, technique, expertise, economics and the quantifying mindset of polls and statistics. That fragmentation loses sight of life, suffering, loneliness and needs that cannot be counted, and citizens end up dispossessed of the fundamental problems of the city.

Morin therefore calls for democracy to be regenerated and taught, because humanity shares a planetary destiny. Children can begin with small civic habits: hearing both sides, defending a view with reasons, and accepting a fair decision against them, perhaps during carnival costume fun or cozy Christmas pajama evenings at home.

My hands-on take

I have found that the inner obstacles are the ones worth naming first, because they show up in everyday friction rather than in big debates. When one of my children insists a sibling started it, I now ask for the other version before deciding anything, and the conversation usually changes shape on its own.

The self-examination idea took me longer to use honestly. What worked was making it mutual: I say one thing I handled badly that day, and they are far more willing to offer theirs. It has made the "you don't understand me" moments shorter, though certainly not extinct.

Frequently asked questions

Can young children really learn empathy?

Yes, in small steps. Morin's point is that understanding involves empathy and projection, and children practise both through stories, role play and naming feelings out loud. It grows through repetition rather than instruction.

How do I explain inner obstacles without shaming my child?

Keep it general and include yourself. Talk about self-justification as something everyone does, then show how you catch yourself doing it. The aim is a shared vocabulary, not a verdict on one person.

What does "politics in pieces" mean for a family?

It describes public life breaking into separate technical fragments that lose sight of real suffering and uncountable needs. At home, the counterweight is discussing issues as whole human problems rather than as isolated statistics.

Is understanding the same as agreeing?

No. Morin is explicit that understanding is not indifference or scepticism; it holds a conviction while accepting that contrary views must be expressed. You can understand someone and still disagree firmly.