Methods of Philosophizing

• Method of Philosophizing


  • different processes of determining the truth or drawing conclusions from statement using various philosophical methods
• Phenomenology: On

  Consciousness

  • This focuses on careful inspection and description of phenomena and appearances, defined as an object of conscious experience, that is, that which we are conscious of.
• Existentialism: On Freedom


  • the truth might be based on ones attitude or outlook
  • making choices based on our personal beliefs and values rather than conforming to societal expectations or norms.
• Founder of Phenomenology

  Edmund Husserl
• The authentic self was the personally chosen self, as opposed to public or “herd”(essence)

  Soren Kierkergaard
• Edmund Husserl

  
• Post Modernism: On Culture


  • own unique traditions or beliefs
  • diverse
  • approaches culture with skepticism, questioning the stability and objectivity of cultural categories and meanings.
  • questions and challenges many of the assumptions and values of modernity.
• Analytic Tradition


  • understand the world solely in terms of our language games - that is our linguistic, social, construct
  • u cannot define something through language perfectly as there are words that have the same sounds but have different meaning
  • language plays a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of the world
• Language is socially conditioned. We understand the world solely in terms of our language games - that is, our linguistic, social construct.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein
• 2 basic types of Reasoning:

  Inductive reasoning (observation)

  Deductive reasoning (investigation)
• Ad Hominem - attacking the person instead of the argument
• Appeal to Force - where arguer use force or threat to persuade someone or to accept their argument
• Appeal to Pity - urging the heaer to accept the argument based upon appeal to emotions, sympathy, etc.
• Appeal to Popular Opinion - urging the hearer to accept a position because majority of the people hold to it
• Appeal to Tradition - trying to get someone to accept something because it has been done or believed for a long time
• Begging the Question - Assuming the thing that you are trying to prove is true
• Fallacy of Composition - assuming what is true of the part is true to the whole
• Fallacy of Division - assuming what is true of the whole is true for the parts
• Fallacy of Equivocation - using the same term in an argument in different places but the word has different meanings
• Postmodernism: On Culture - It has come into vogue as the name for a rather diffuse family of ideas and trends that in significant respects rejects, challenges, or aim to supersede “modernity”
• Logic in Critical Thinking: Tools in Reasoning - serves as paths from half truths and deceptions. Critical Thinking helps us uncover bias and prejudice and open to new ideas not necessarily in agreement with previous thought
• Fallacies - are errors in reasoning that undermine the validity of an argument.