Philosophical Training

How to Organize an Initial Theory

Version 1.1. Created 5/14/09.

How to Organize an Initial Theory

Summary

– Step 1: Create a working document with a suitable name

– Step 2: Set up your document
– Step 3: Create your initial theory
– Step 4: Save a version of your theory to a new document
– Step 5: Improve your theory; save new versions

– Making a few things easier

– An example: a theory of what exists

Step 1: Create a working document with a suitable name

Use a word processor. Create a document and give it a suitable name.

Include in the name:

(a) an indication of what the theory is a theory of

(b)an indication that the document is a “working” document
(c) something that indicates that you are the author of the theory.

For instance, if you’re creating a theory of what exists and your name is René
Descartes, you could use the name: “Theory of what exists – RD – working”.

Step 2: Set up your document

Divide the document into three sections. Do this using some indication of
major section breaks. (You’ll be using minor section breaks as well.) Title
the sections:

I. The Theory
II. Specific Claims
III. Other Arguments
Philosophical Training
How to Organize an Initial Theory
Version 1.1. Created 5/14/09.

Step 3: Create your initial theory

Now create your theory. Organize the different claims and arguments as
follows:
In the “The Theory” section, include the claims of your theory. Don’t
include arguments. Divide the claims into three different types:

(a) Knowledge claims you know to be true

(b)Belief claims you believe to be true
(c) Conjecture claims you are inclined to believe are true

Indicate which beliefs are of which type. One easy way to do this is to color-
code the claims – use one color for knowledge, one for belief, one for
conjecture.
In the “Specific Claims” section, create a subsection for each of the
claims of your theory. In that subsection, include your arguments for that
claim and/or your notes regarding it. If you don’t have any arguments or
notes regarding a claim, create the subsection but leave it empty.
In the “Other Arguments” section, create a subsection for each
argument you’ve considered and do not currently accept. This could include
old versions of your own arguments. In the subsection, include the argument
as well as a brief explanation of why you don’t currently accept it.

Step 4: Save a version of your theory to a new document

Once your theory is sufficiently developed, save a version of it. Title the new
document in the same way as the old one, except replace the indication that
the document is a working document with a version number.
For instance, if you’ve got a version of your theory of what exists called
“Theory of what exists – RD – working”, you could name the new document
“Theory of what exists – RD – version 1”.

Step 5: Improve your theory; save new versions

Continue work on your theory. Work in the “working” document; leave the
“version 1” document as a record. Once you’ve changed your theory
enough, save a new version of it as “version 2.” Continue work in the
“working” document, and so on.
Philosophical Training
How to Organize an Initial Theory
Version 1.1. Created 5/14/09.

Making a few things easier

Using macros. Color coding, inserting horizontal lines, and so forth can be a
little laborious. If you’re using Microsoft Word (and undoubtedly other word
processors as well), you can program in particular sets of actions using the
Macros function. For instance, you can program a key combination (e.g., Ctrl
+ Alt + Shift + r) that colors highlighted text red. This makes it much easier
to perform a number of functions.

Using claim codes. When you get enough claims, it can be difficult to search
around and find the section in “Specific Claims” devoted to it. One way to
handle this is to give each claim a unique code (e.g., “§aa:”). If you code the
claims in the “The Theory” section and put corresponding codes in the
corresponding “Specific Claims” subsections, you’ll be able to look up the
codes in the “The Theory” section and get to them quickly using the Find
function. For enormous theories, this is an absolute necessity.

An example: a theory of what exists

[see following pages]

Philosophical Training
How to Organize an Initial Theory
Version 1.1. Created 5/14/09.

Example Theory Document

Document name: theory of what exists – Geoff – working.doc

Key: Knowledge claims are in: black.

Belief claims are in: blue.
Conjecture claims are in: red.
Conclusions are: underlined.
What other people say is in: purple.

The Theory

What Exists

1. God exists.
2. I exist.
3. Shapes exist.
4. Nothing other than the above exists.

What Doesn’t Exist

1. Numbers do not exist.

2. Material objects do not exist.

Specific Claims

“God exists.”

My argument:

1. Every thing that exists has a cause.

2. I exist.
3. Therefore, I have a cause.
4. The only possible cause of me is God.
5. Therefore, God exists.

I’m not really sure of step 4. Maybe I should downgrade “God exists” to a
conjecture.
Philosophical Training
How to Organize an Initial Theory
Version 1.1. Created 5/14/09.

“I exist.”

I know this without an argument.

“Shapes exist.”

This is just something I believe right now. I mean, how could there not be
shapes? Maybe there are shapes in my visual field.

“Nothing other than the above exists.”

This comes from a principle of elegance.

“Numbers do not exist.”

My argument:

1. If numbers exist, then the number zero exists.

2. The number zero is nothing.
3. Therefore, if numbers exist, then “nothing” exists.
4. It is not the case that “nothing” exists.
5. Therefore, numbers do not exist.

In this argument, the phrase ““nothing” exists” means: “there is this thing,
the Nothing, and it exists.” It doesn’t mean “it is not the case that anything
exists.” The point is that the number zero, if it existed, would be the
Nothing. But there is nothing like that.

“Material objects do not exist.”

For material objects to exist, they would have to occupy space. But how can
something occupy something? Wouldn’t the material object already have to
be spatial in order to occupy anything? This yields the following argument:

1. If a material object exists, it occupies space.

2. If X occupies space, then X is spatial because it occupies space.
3. Therefore, if a material object exists, then it is spatial because it
occupies space.
4. If something occupies space, it must be spatial prior to occupying
space. (Otherwise it wouldn’t be big enough to occupy the space.)
Philosophical Training
How to Organize an Initial Theory
Version 1.1. Created 5/14/09.
5. Therefore, if a material object exists, then it is spatial prior to
occupying space and because it occupies space.
6. Nothing is X prior to being Y and is X because it is Y.
7. Therefore, no material objects exist.

Now, I do think that there are shapes. But then what do they occupy?
Perhaps they don’t occupy anything at all.

Other Arguments

The No Miracles argument

Someone I was talking to said that God couldn’t exist because miracles are
impossible. My first rendition of that argument is:

1. If God exists, then there are miracles.

2. Miracles are violations of the laws of nature.
3. Nothing can violate the laws of nature.
4. Therefore, there are no miracles.
5. Therefore, God does not exist.

My response is: The laws of nature are just generalizations describing God’s
will. So God can violate the laws of nature by simply willing anomalously.