Methods of Philosophizing

Lesson 2
Objectives:
• Distinguish opinion and truth.
• Analyze situations that show
difference between opinion
and truth.
• Realize that the methods of
philosophy leads to wisdom
and truth.
• Evaluate opinions.
 2 Lies and a truth
• Learners will tell 2 lies and a truth about them
to their group mates
• The members of the group will have to guess
which ones are lies and which is the truth
about their classmate.
Questions:
1. Was it easy identifying
the truths about your
classmates?
2. How did you find out
which ones are lies and
truths about your
classmates?
 Let’s Get The Facts Straight!

There is a difference between

FACT and OPINION.

Facts are statements that can be proven.

Opinions can not be proven. They are based on someone's
thoughts, their feelings and their understanding.
Though you may be able to use facts to add credibility to an
opinion, it is still an opinion!
Though an opinion may be widely accepted, that does not
make it a fact.
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 Let’s Get The Facts Straight!
A fact is something that can be proven
by a reliable authority such as:
Proven
A Statistics
scientific law
history book
Governmental
Measurements
law

Mathematics An observation

Note : None of these authorities are fool proof, but information that they provide is
considered to be fact.
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Lets Look at Some Examples of Facts
Reliable
Facts Must Have a Authority
Ferdinand Marcos was History Book
Ph President in 1965-
1986
The adult human body Science
has 206 bones
56% of gun Deaths Statistic
are suicides
18 is the legal drinking Governmental
age in Philippines Law
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 More Examples of Facts
What About Observations?
Observations are facts because they can be proven by the senses.

Fact How it is Provable

Some flowers are You can bring in
larger than others. flowers of various
sizes
The shirt is green. You can bring in the
shirt so that the color
can be seen
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 Getting the Facts on Facts
Some facts change over time. For example:

It was once considered to be a fact that the world was flat.

We believed that those traveling too far in either direction could

literally fall off!

Because new things are being discovered everyday, reliable authorities are sometimes
forced to alter what we all once considered to be facts.
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Lets Look at Some Examples of Opinions
Here are some of the same topics that we saw as facts. Can
you figure out how they were changed to opinions?

Ferdinand Marcos was an excellent President.

Apparently, the adult human body has more
bones than necessary.
It is likely that the suicide rate will decrease soon.

All of these words

It is unfair for the legal drinking age to
arebe 18.that there
hints
is an opinion
present.
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Opinions: Words To Look Out For
There are Certain Words that will Warn You that
You are Being Given an Opinion and
Not a Fact!
Maybe Successful

Perhaps Necessary

Best / Worst Apparently

Experts Agree Probably

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 Getting the Facts About Opinions
An opinion is not necessarily wrong, it is merely not a
provable fact.

For example:

“Bridgett is a very beautiful young lady.”

Even if everyone agreed with this statement, it is still an opinion because it

is not provable. Beauty is relative.
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 Activity
• What are the facts about you?
• Learners will create an artistic expression of
three (3) facts about them. They may express
it through a song, poster/art, dance video, or
other artistic output
Methods of Philosophizing
Lesson 2
Philosophizing
• To think or express oneself in a
philosophic manner.
• It consider or discusses a (matter) from a
philosophical standpoint.
• Phenomenology- person’s consciousness.
• Existentialism- truth is based in exercising
choices and personal freedom.
• Postmodernism- accepted that truth is not
absolute (i.e. cultural).
• Logic- truth is based on reasoning and
critical thinking.
Phenomenology
• Edmund Husserl
Phenomenology
• This focuses on careful
inspection and description of
phenomena or appearances,
defined as any object of
conscious experience, that
is, that which we are
conscious of (Johnston,
2006).
•HisIn this book,
continuing effort was dedicated
to Husserl
developing aargued
method for finding
and guaranteeing the truth
against….
(Phenomenology)

Psychologism- the thesis that truth is

dependent on the peculiarities of the
human mind, and that philosophy is
reducible to psychology, in other
words, it was an argument against the
very thesis that he himself had argued
in his first book on the philosophy of
arithmetic.
• Phenomenology is the
Phenomenologist
Consciousness is
scientific study of thecan
distinguish
intentional
essential and describe
structures of
the nature of
consciousness. intentional
Every
acts ofactconsciousness
of consciousnessand
isthe
directed
intentional
at some
objects
object
of
consciousness
or another, possibly
which are
a
material
defined through
object ofthean
“ideal”
content(e.g.of consciousness.
mathematics)
 Phenomenon
Husserl intends a similar
It is where trouble Used the same
meaning except for the
word to refer
Consciousness
starts,
crucial factwhen
that forone is it
him,
to the world of
does not imply
always
supposes that what aacontrast our
between the appearance experience.
consciousness
one
and experiences
some underlying ofis
not something
or might
reality, between notthebe
Phainomenon
-E. Husserl
thephenomenon
truth and a &
(Solomon Appearance
(Greek)
“noumenon”
Higgins
or “thing in
2010).
itself”.
 For instance, time consciousness,
mathematics, andReal logic; perception
and experience of the social world;
Causes or
our experience of our own bodies;
Consciousness Consequenses

and moral, aesthetic, and religious

External
experiences (Solomon and Higgins,
This method uncovers the essential
2010).
structure of experience and its objects.
 Husserl’s
Phenomenological Reductions
1. The epoche of “suspension”
(General Introduction in Pure
Phenomenology)
• The phenomenologist “brackets” all
questions of truth or reality and simply
describes the contents of consciousness
(Husserl’s ideas were borrowed from
early Skeptics and Descartes).
2. Eliminates the merely empirical
contents of consciousness and focuses
instead of the essential features, the
meanings of consciousness
(phenomenologist’s interests)
• Husserl defends a notion of intuition that
differs from and is more specialized than
ordinary notion of experience.
Natural Phenomenological
World Standpoint

Not on THINGS but our

CONSCIOUSNESS OF THINGS
(Solomon & Higgins, 2010)
Existentialism
• Not exactly a
philosophical method
but a set of doctrines but
more of an outlook or
attitude supported by
diverse doctrines
centered on certain
common themes.
These themes include…
• The human condition of the relation of
the individual to the world.
These themes include…
• The human
response to that
condition.
 These
If we maythemes
Atheistic include…
generalize for just a
VS
moment, we might suggest that
Being,
concreteness• and
TheTheistic especially
subjectivity of
Existentialism the difference
the EXISTENTIALISTS
life as lived, against share
abstractions
between the beinganda
false objectifications.
of person
concern for the(existence)
individual
The significance and
(and
and theof
unavoidability)
personal responsibility
being of other
choice and decision
kinds in
ofthe
things.
absence of
(Chambers, 2001). certainty.
 The authentic
Opposition self genuine
of the was the personally
individual versus
chosen self aspublic
opposed toHeidegger
herd public or herd was
identity.
identity.
influenced by
these two
whose
conception of
ownness came
to dominate
contemporary
Existentialism is often thought to be
existentialistthere has been a
antireligious; nevertheless,
thought.
strong current of Christian Existentialism.
• Some philosophers such as Jean Paul Sartre,
have employed phenomenological
methods to arrive at or support their
specific variations on existential themes.
• Emphasizes the importance of free
individual choice, regardless of the power
of other people to influence and coerce our
beliefs, desires and decisions.
• He argued that
consciousness
(being for itself)
is such that it is
always free to
choose (though
not free not to
choose) and free
to “negate (or
reject) the given
features of the
world.
 Authenticity
(Good Faith)

Authenticity of the self—

True to
the genuineness of his
thoughts and actions,
Oneself
“the good of his soul.”
-Socrates
Horrors of war
and occupation
• St. Augustine was
concerned with the
spiritual nature of the
“true” self as opposed
to the inauthentic
demands of desire and
the body.
• Jean Jacques
Rousseau was
adamant about the
essential goodness
of the natural self in
contrast to the
corruption imposed
by society (Baird &
Kauffman, 1997).
Other Existentialists
Postmodernism
• 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 supercede
“modernity”.
• The convictions, aspirations,
and pretensions of modern
Western thought and culture
since the Enlightenment.
Postmodernism is not
Philosophy…
It is at best a holding
pattern, perhaps cry of
despair.

It rightly talks about world

philosophy, the philosophy
of many cultures, but such
talk is not a philosophy
either (Shields, 2012).
Richard Rorty (American
Philosopher)
• Developing themes from
Pragmatism
pragmatism and certain quarters
of analytic philosophy and
The philosophy
bringing of
these together with
Continental themes, challenged
considering practical
the modern rationalist
consequences or real
presumption that philosophy or
any branch of knowledge can find
effects
secure to be
foundations orvital
achieve
genuine representation of reality.
components of both
meaning and truth.
• Postmodernists believed that humanity
should come at truth beyond the rational to
the non-rational elements of human nature
including the spiritual.

Adhere to a Value our

relational, existence in the
holistic world and in our
approach. relation to it.
 Analytic Tradition
For philosophers,
language cannot describe
objectively the truth.

Can we describe
this objectively?
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.
Analysis
• Refers to a method; owing a great deal to
the pioneers.
 Logic and Critical Thinking
It also takes
Against bias consideratio
n
and
2 Basic Types of prejudice
Paths to
It isReasoning
centered
freedom from
in the
half truths Distinguishing
analysis and
Inductive reasoning- based inand Deductive reasoning- draws
construction facts and
observations in order to make conclusion from usually 1
deceptions.
broad judgment or opinions
definitionor
of
generalizations
arguments. personal
and one more specific
assertion, often anfeelings.
inference.
 Validity and Soundness of an
Agrument
Comes from a logical
conclusion based on logically Deductive
constructed premises (Reed, Argument
2010).
HereStrengthare some of anofArgument
the usually
committed errors
• Inductive arguments cannot prove if the
premises are true which will also
in
reasoning and thus, coming
determine the truth of the conclusion.

uppremises.
with false conclusion and
• It is a defect in argument other than its having false

worse, distorting the truth.

• To detect fallacies, it is required to examine the
agrument’s content.
a. Appeal to Pity (Argumentum ad
misericordiam)
• A specific kind of appeal to emotion in
which someone tries to win support for
an argument or idea by exploiting his or
her opponent’s feelings of pity and guilt.
b. Appeal to Ignorance
(Argumentum ad Ignorantiam)
• Whatever has not been proved false must
be true.
c. Equivocation
• A logical chain of reasoning of a term or
a word several times, but giving the
particular word a different meaning each
time.
Clock has hands
We have hands
d. Composition (Reverse: Division)
• This infers that something is true of the
whole from the fact that is true of some
part of the whole.
e. Division
• Some parts must also be true.
f. Against the Person
(Argumentum ad hominem)
• Attempts to link the validity of a premise
to a characteristic or belief of the person,
advocating the premise.
• In some instances, questions of personal
conduct, character, motives, etc. are
legitimate if relevant to the issue.
g. Appeal to Force (Argumentum
ad baculum)
• An argument where force, coercion, or
the the threat of force, is given as a
justification for a conclusion.
h. Appeal to the People
(Argumentum ad Populum)
• An argument that
appeals or exploits
people’s vanities,
desire for esteem,
and anchoring on
popularity.
i. False Cause (post hoc)
• Coincidental correlation, or correlation
not causation.
j. Hasty Generalization
• Commonly based on a broad conclusion
upon the statistics of a survey of a small
groups that falls to sufficiently represent
the whole population.
k. Begging the question (Petitio
Principii)
• This is a type of fallacy in which the
proposition to be proven is assumed
implicity or explicity in the premise.
 Truth Opinion
Rubrics

Organization 5 PTS
Understanding the Topic 5 pts
Which
Relevance
is more credible?
5 pts
Delivery 5 pts
__________________________________________
Evaluators
20 pts
Answer the following questions (5
sentences)
1. Which method of philosophizing usually
reflects your ideas?
2. How do experiences nurture your personality
as a person?
3. How can you determine if a choice that you
have chosen will benefit you?
4. Which fallacy do you usually encounter?
Explain how does this fallacy affect your ideas?
5. How do language shape the society where you
belong?
Assignment: Rubrics:
Originality (5 pts)
Video Blog: What are
Relevance thetopic
to the differences
(5 pts)
between opinion and truth?
Details (5 pts)
Strengthening Principle (5 pts)
______________________________
TOTAL (20 PTS)