Method of Moral and Social Philosophical Inquiry - Postulates of Moral and Social Philosophy - The Nature of Philosophical Inquiry - The Context and Scope of Inquiry - Modes of Inquiry - Method of Ethical Inquiry

1. Method of Moral and Social
Philosophical Inquiry

2. For want of a nail, the shoe is lost;
For want of a shoe, the horse is lost;
For want of a horse, the rider is lost.”
- George Herbert
(1593 – 1633)

3. METHOD OF MORAL AND
SOCIAL
PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
 Postulates of Moral and Social Philosophy
 The Nature of Philosophical Inquiry
 The Context and Scope of Inquiry
 Modes of Inquiry
 Method of Ethical Inquiry

5. POSTULATES OF MORAL
AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
A postulate is a truth that has been
proven by one science and has been
taken into or used by another science.

6. POSTULATES OF MORAL
AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
1. Human reason is a reliable and
trustworthy source or instrument of
human knowledge that is true and
certain;

7. POSTULATES OF MORAL
AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
2. An infinitely intelligent, good, and
just God exists;

8. POSTULATES OF MORAL
AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
3. Man has free will and is, therefore,
responsible for his human actions;

9. POSTULATES OF MORAL
AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
4. Man has a rational soul and has
intellect whose object is the truth and a
will whose object is the good;

10. POSTULATES OF MORAL
AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
5. Man is a social being and has
relatedness as his essence.

12. Robert O. Johann, S.J.
- the Professor of
Philosophy, at Fordham
University in the Bronx,
New York and Fordham's
prominent Jesuit
Philosopher.

13. According to Robert O. Johann,
S.J., inquiry is man’s effort to integrate his
experience as a responsible agent.
“Experience” is understood as the
interactive process whereby the human
self is in dynamic relation with the whole
range of the other.

14. The ground and condition of
inquiry is the fact that man is a
responder, that is, he is able to give a
fitting answer to actions upon him. In
this sense, experience is not
something going on within the self,
something private and subjective.

15. Within this process, man functions as
a responder. This notion of responder has its
roots in that objective awareness, that
presence of the other as other that is
characteristic of man. Unlike the brute animal
which lives ecstatically immersed in its
environment which it carries along as a snail
carries its shell, man finds himself standing
over against the environment with which the
human situation and it looks backward
(remember the past) and forward (anticipates
the future).

16. The starting point of inquiry is the
problematic situation when past habits of
dealing with reality no longer suffice for the
new situation. Inquiry is, therefore, the
process by which the human person
transforms a problematic situation into a
resolved one. It is not mere problem solving
since it is concerned with the enrichment of
human life as a whole.

18. THE CONTEXT AND SCOPE
OF INQUIRY
Human experience is a
shared experience, common and
shared ways, beliefs, and
practices of dealing with the
environment or human reality.

19. THE CONTEXT AND SCOPE
OF INQUIRY
The inquiry is shared or communal has a
double significance:
1. The value of tradition as shared is a matter
of fact.
2. But, the adequacy of the content of tradition
is a matter of intention.

20. THE CONTEXT AND SCOPE
OF INQUIRY
Logically, it would follow
that inquiry is not a finished fact
but a continuing task. In short,
inquiry is historical and
communal, evolutionary and
developmental.

21. THE CONTEXT AND SCOPE
OF INQUIRY
Common sense inquiry is
subject to error and does not suffice.
Scientific inquiry is instrumental and
looks at the world as means.
Philosophic inquiry alone takes
human life as an end and is concerned
with the quality of human life.

23. ?

24. There are three steps in integrating human
life as a whole:
1. Logic: thought must be theoretically coherent and
self-consistent.
2. Phenomenology: action is the result of thought
which has practical relevance.
3. Meta-pragmatics: thoughtful action must be in
the service of human growth.

25. Task of Philosophy:
1. Formulation of a comprehensive human
ideal which is the achievement of universal
personal community.
2. Criticism not only of common sense beliefs
but also of philosophy itself.

26. The test of the validity of any
philosophy is its contribution to the
wholeness, coherence,
reasonableness, and satisfactoriness
of human life.

27. A practical philosophy
whose aim is life’s reconstruction
and the achievement of human
development we shall call
ontological pragmatism.

28. What does it mean to inquire or to
know at all? For ontological
pragmatism, to know is not simply to
think about, to interpret, or explain
reality but to deal or do something
with or transform reality.

29. Thus, to know justice is to be just, to
know freedom is to be free, and to know
love is to love. The only philosophy that is
practical is one that enriches human life
immensely. Practical philosophy then is
human reflection on human experience in
the service of human growth.

31. Applying the method of
ontological pragmatism to moral theory,
the epistemological problem of ethics is:
What does it mean to know moral value?
If to know reality is to deal with reality,
then to know moral value is to realize
moral value, to be moral is to love reality
of being. In short, to know good is to do
good.

32. Two Basic Approaches to Moral Theory or Ethics.
1. Phenomenology can be taken both as an attitude:
“just look and see what is there” or as a method of
accurate description of what is directly given in
experience (phenomena).
2. Metaphysics is reflection on the data of human
experience to discover is human meaning.

34. The method of our ethical inquiry is both
phenomenological and metaphysical.
It is the human meaning of human behavior
that has moral significance.
The purpose of ethics is to explicitate what is
implicit; to exteriorize what is interior in
man’s moral experience.

35. Thank you for listening…