3. Key Questions
• What are the different ways of doing
philosophy?
• How can philosophy guide us in
distinguishing opinion from truth?
4. Methods of Philosophizing
• Philosophizing is to think or express oneself in a
philosophical manner.
discusses a matter from a philosophical
standpoint
Phenomenology: On Consciousness
• Phenomenology was founded by Edmund Husserl.
• A method for finding and guaranteeing the truth
that focuses on careful inspection and description of
phenomena or appearances.
• It comes form the Greek word phainómenon
meaning “appearance.”
• It is the scientific study of the essential structures of
consciousness.
5. Methods of Philosophizing
• The phenomenologist can describe the content of
consciousness and accordingly, the object of
consciousness without any particular commitment
to the actuality or existence of that object.
• Phenomenology uncovers the essential structures of
experience and its objects.
• Every act of consciousness is directed at some object
or another, possibly a material object or an “ideal”
object.
• Husserl’s phenomenology is the thesis that
consciousness is intentional.
6. Methods of Philosophizing
• Husserl’s Phenomenological Standpoint
The first and best known is the epoche or
“suspension” that “brackets” all questions of
truth or reality and simply describes the contents
of consciousness.
The second reduction eliminates the merely
empirical contents of consciousness and focuses
instead on the essential features, the meanings of
consciousness.
• Phenomenologists are interested in the contents of
consciousness, not on things of the natural world as
such.
7. Methods of Philosophizing
Existentialism: On Freedom
• Existentialism is not primarily a philosophical
method nor is it exactly a set of doctrines but more
of an outlook or attitude supported by diverse
doctrines centered on certain common themes.
the human condition or the relation of the
individual to the world;
the human response to that condition;
being, especially the difference between the
being of person (which is “existence”) and the
being of other kinds of things;
human freedom;
8. Methods of Philosophizing
the significance (and unavoidability) of choice
and decision in the absence of certainty and;
the concreteness and subjectivity of life as lived,
against abstractions and false objectifications.
• Existentialism emphasizes the importance of free
individual choice, regardless of the power of other
people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs,
and decisions.
• To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to
imagine, free to choose, and responsible for one’s life.
• One of the continuing criticisms of existentialism is
the obscurity and the seeming elusiveness of the
ideal of authenticity.
9. Methods of Philosophizing
Postmodernism: On Cultures
• Postmodernism is not a philosophy.
• “Postmodernism” has come into vogue as the name
for a rather diffuse family of ideas and trends that in
significant respect rejects, challenges, or aims to
supersede “modernity”.
• Postmodernists believe that humanity should come
at truth beyond the rational to the non-rational
elements of human nature, including the spiritual.
• Beyond exalting individual analysis of truth,
postmodernists adhere to a relational, holistic
approach.
10. Methods of Philosophizing
Analytic Tradition
• For analytic philosophers, language cannot
objectively describe truth because language is
socially conditioned.
• Analytic philosophy is the conviction that to some
significant degree, philosophical problems, puzzles,
and errors are rooted in language and can be solved
or avoided by a sound understanding of language
and careful attention to its workings.
11. Methods of Philosophizing
Logic and Critical Thinking: Tools in Reasoning
• Logic is centered in the analysis and construction of
arguments.
• Critical thinking is distinguishing facts and opinions
or personal feelings.
• Critical thinking also takes into consideration
cultural systems, values, and beliefs and helps us
uncover bias and prejudice and be open to new
ideas not necessarily in agreement with previous
thought.
• Two basic types of reasoning:
Inductive reasoning which is based from
observations in order to make generalizations.
12. Methods of Philosophizing
Deductive reasoning which draws conclusion
from usually one broad judgment or definition
and one more specific assertion, often an
inference.
• An argument (deductive argument) is valid and
sound if it is a product of logically constructed
premises.
• Validity comes from a logical conclusion based on
logically constructed premises.
• An argument (inductive argument) is strong if it
provides probable support to the conclusion.
• A strong argument with true premises is said to be
cogent.
13. Methods of Philosophizing
Fallacies
• A fallacy is a defect in an argument.
• Fallacies are detected by examining the contents of
the argument.
• Common fallacies
Appeal to pity (Argumentum ad misericordiam)
An attempt to win support for an argument or
idea by exploiting his or her opponent’s feelings
of pity or guilt.
Appeal to ignorance (Argumentum ad ignorantiam)
What has not been proven false must be true
and vice versa.
14. Methods of Philosophizing
Equivocation
A logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word
several times, but giving the particular word a
different meaning each time.
Composition
Something is true of the whole from the fact that
it is true of some part of the whole.
Division
Something true of a thing must also be true of all
or some of its parts.
Against the Person (Argumentum ad hominem)
It links the validity of a premise to a characteristic
or belief of the person advocating the premise.
15. Methods of Philosophizing
Appeal to force (Argumentum ad baculum)
An argument where force, coercion, or the threat
of force is given as a justification for a conclusion.
Appeal to the people (Argumentum ad populum)
An argument that appeals or exploits people’s
vanities, desire for esteem, and anchoring on
popularity.
False cause (post hoc)
Since that event followed this one, that event
must have been caused by this one.
Hasty generalization
Making an inductive generalization based on
insufficient evidence.
16. Methods of Philosophizing
Begging the question (petitio principii)
An argument where the proposition to be proven
is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise.
17. Activities
1. How can truth have different interpretations?
2. Share your experiences on the times you did not use
reason in your life but rather, you relied more on
emotions or opinions of other people. What did you
learn from the experience?
3. Cite examples of how fallacies are used in daily life.
For example, when you watch advertisements based
on the popularity of endorsers, do you tend to buy
their product?
