Philosophy

I. What are the different methods of philosophizing?

Give examples for each.

●LOGIC truth is based on reasoning and critical thinking analysis and construction of
arguments. It serve as path to freedom from half truths and deception.. Logic is also the
study of reasoning, or the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and
demonstration. It attempts to distinguish good reasoning from bad reasoning.

2 TYPES OF REASONING

INDUCTIVE REASONING– moves from specific premises to a general conclusion.

Example: Every tornado I have ever seen in the United States rotated counterclockwise,
and I have seen dozens of them.
We see a tornado in the distance, and we are in the United States.
I conclude that the tornado we see right now must be rotating counterclockwise.

DEDUCTIVE REASONING– Deductive reasoning moves from a general premise to a more

specific conclusion.

Example: All men is mortal. Socrates is a man.Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

The first premise states that all objects classified as “men” have the attribute “mortal”. The
second premise states that “Socrates” is classified as a “man” – a member of the set “men”. The
conclusion then states that “Socrates” must be “mortal” because he inherits this attribute from his
classification as a “man”.

●EXISTENTIALISM it is the importance of free individual choice regardless of the

power of the people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs, and decisions. For
example, there is a problem that you need to make a decision but you should face what
would be its early consequences.Another example of existentialism would be when a
person makes a decision about their life, follows through or does not follow through on
that decision and begins to create their essence. It is said in existentialism that existence
comes first and essence comes second.

According to my research, Existentialism has general characteristics:

1. EXISTENCE BEFORE ESSENCE: Existentialism gets its name from an insistence that life is
only understandable in terms of an individual’s existence, his particular life experience.
2. REASON IS UNABLE TO DEAL WITH THE DEPTHS OF LIFE: There are two parts to
this idea: first, that reason is relatively weak and imperfect, (people often do not do the “right”
thing), and second, that there are dark places in life which are “non-reason,” to which reason
scarcely penetrates, (meaning we often commit acts which seem to defy reason, to make no
sense).
3. ALIENATION: Existentialism holds that, since the Renaissance, people have slowly been
separated from concrete earthly existence. Individuals have been forced to live at ever higher
levels of abstraction, have been collectivised out of existence, and have driven God from the
heavens, (or, what is the same thing to the existentialist), from the hearts of men. It is believed
that individuals live in a fourfold condition of alienation: from God, from nature, from
other people, and from our own “true” selves.
4. “FEAR AND TREMBLING“and ANXIETY: The optimism of the 18th and 19th centuries
gives way, after WW I, to the Great Depression, WW II and the Holocaust, to a feeling of
pessimism, fear and anxiety. Another kind of anxiety facing individuals in the 20th C when the
 philosophy of existentialism develops is “the anguish of Abraham,” the necessity which is laid
upon people to make “moral” choices on their own sense of responsibility.
5. THE ENCOUNTER WITH NOTHINGNESS: According to the existentialists, for individuals
alienated from God, from nature, from other people and even from themselves, what is left at last
but Nothingness? This is, simply stated, how existentialists see humanity: on the brink of a
catastrophic precipice, below which yawns the absolute void, black Nothingness, asking
ourselves, “Does existence ultimately have any purpose?”
6. FREEDOM: Sooner or later, as a theme that includes all the others mentioned above,
existentialist writings bear upon freedom. All of these ideas either describe some loss of
individuals’ freedom or some threat to it, and all existentialists of whatever sort are considered to
enlarge the range of human freedom.

●ANALYTICAL TRADITION, one of the methods of philosophizing ,is the conviction

that the some significant
structure. Any of various philosophical methodologies holding that clear and precise defi
nition and argumentation are vital to productive philosophical inquiry. For example, the
definition of a concept can be determined by uncovering the underlying logical
structures, or “logical forms,” of the sentences used to express it.

According to my research analytical tradition has a characteristics paragraph by Russell:

It develop a powerful logical technique.It is thus able, in regard to certain problems, to achieve
definite answers, which have the quality of science rather than of philosophy.It has the
advantage, in comparison with the philosophies of the system-builders, of being able to tackle its
problems one at a time, instead of having to invent at one stroke a block theory of the whole
universe. Its methods, in this respect, resemble those of science.

Analytical traditions has three main foundational planks:

 that there are no specifically philosophical truths and that the object of philosophy is the
logical clarification of thoughts.
 that the logical clarification of thoughts can only be achieved by analysis of the logical form of
philosophical propositions, such as by using the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical
system.
 a rejection of sweeping philosophical systems and grand theories in favuor of close attention
to detail, as well as a defense of common sense and ordinary language against the pretensions
of traditional metaphysics and ethics.

●PHENOMENOLOGY it is careful inspection and description of phenomena or

appearance. it is also a scientific study of essential structure. According to my research,
phenomenology is commonly understood in either of two ways: as a disciplinary field in
philosophy, or as a movement in the history of philosophy. An example of
phenomenology is studying the green flash that sometimes happens just after sunset or
just before sunrise.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PHENOMENOLOGY

Phenomenology has main characteristics.

1.In phenomenology, the objective is the direct investigation and description of phenomena as
they are consciously experienced, without theories about the causal explanations or their
objective reality.
2.Phenomenology therefore seeks to understand how people construct meaning.
3.It investigates experiences as they are lived by those experiencing them, and the meaning that
 these people attach to them.
4.Critical truths about reality are grounded in peoples lived experiences.

There are four aspects of these lived experiences, namely:

 lived space
 lived body
 lived time
 lived human relations.

Phenomenology consists mainly of in-depth conversations.

6.In phenomenology, the researcher and the informants are often considered as co-participants.

7.A very important characteristic in phenomenology is person-centred rather than being

concerned with social processes, cultures, or traditions.

For me I learned that it is important to study the methods of philosophizing to know what we say
and spoke to others. If they continue to teach this until next generation. It helps to extend the
knowledge of the people especially the youth like me.

II. How to distinguish opinion from truth?

●Truth is based on facts that are observable and varifiable. Opinions are based on
feelings and preferences.

III. How to evaluate opinions?

●To clarify I'm not referring to a fact or something that can be objectively measured, but
rather if you have a useful heuristic that you'd like to share that applies to how, in
general, one can evaluate an opinion in an unbiased way?
As an example B. Russell wrote about how we should immerse ourselves in opposing
opinions and really see what it is like to believe so and so before dismissing it, but I find
that hard to do in practice and I was wondering if there could be other ways of thinking
about this.