PHILOSOPHY NOTES

Dr. Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

 An essential approach to business management from the creator of
Lateral Thinking
 Role-playing model presented by Edward de Bono in 1986
 Team-based; Brainstorming Technique
 Explore problems and solutions
 Overlooked
 Generate ideas differently

Typologies:
White Hat - Associated with purity
 Facts and Information
 Available data
 Look for information
 Look for gaps
Detective - Analyzes information
Questions:
1. What do we know about this issue?
2. What don’t we know about thus issue?
What can we learn from this situation?
3. What information do we need to solve this problem?
4. Are there potential existing solutions that we can
use to solve this problem?

Yellow Hat - Associated with happiness and has a positive outlook

 Positive
 Optimistic
 Looks gloomy and difficult
Questions:
1. What is the best way to approach the problem?
2. What can we do to make this work?
3. What are the long-term benefits of this action?

Black Hat - Skeptical and Pessimism

 Negative
 Negative outcomes
 Cautious and defensive
 Not working
Questions:
1. How will this idea likely fail?
2. What is this idea’s fatal flaw?
3. What are the potential risks and consequences?
4. Do we have the resources, skills, and ability to make this
work?
Red Hat - Rage and emotion
 Feelings and Emotions
 Intuitive insights
 Seek out feelings
 Reveal hidden strengths
 Uses instinct
 Find internal conflicts
 Sensitive
Questions:
1. What is my gut feeling about this solution?
2. Base on feelings, is there another way to fix this problem?
3. What are our feelings about the choice we are making?
4. Does our intuition tell us this is the right solution?

Green Hat
 New ideas
 Think outside the box
 Creative thinking
 Takes risk
Questions:
1. Do alternative possibilities exist?
2. Can we do this another way?
3. How can we look at this problem from other perspectives?
4. How do we think outside the box?

Blue Hat
 Big picture
 Structured thinking
Questions:
1. What is the problem?
2. How do we define the problem?
3. What is our goal and desired outcome?
4. What will we achieve by solving the problem?
5. What will we achieve by solving the problem?
6. What is the best method for going forward?

Epicurus
 “Man’s freewill is a power to choose.”
 Use it to fulfill one’s desires.
 Aristotle and Plato does not agree towards Epicurus’ idea.

Aristotle
 In his book “Politics”, people must be controlled to prevent the
dehumanization of people
 Must comply first from being ruled towards ruling in turn to be virtuous.
Plato
 In his book “The Republic” through the story of “The Allegory of the Cave”,
Free Will is the ability to pursue reason’s desires rather than soul’s
desires.

Modern philosophers also had contrasting views about Freedom

~ TWO DOMINANT ASSUMPTIONS ~

Without belief in Free Will, there Free Will seems difficult to
would be reason for us to act reconcile with what we know
morally. about the world.
Renee Descartes - Reality is dualistic with a deterministic material.
Benedict Spinoza - Reality is one substance of Nature, it has a material and
mental aspect that are both deterministic.
David Hume - Some actions as humans are casually determined, but they
are not forced actions.
Immanuel Kant - Freedom requires a separate world-in-itself.
Isaiah Berlin - There are two types of Freedom:
Positive Freedom Negative Freedom
A person has the ability to exercise Absence of any constrains,
independent actions. hindrances, and limitations.

Types of Freedom:
 Intellectual - Letting one’s intellect to rule over.
 Moral and Spiritual - Pursue what is right
 St. Thomas Aquinas once said, love is Freedom.
 Individual - Ability to choose one’s life will take.
 Jean Paul Sarte once said, existentialism stems from existence
precedes essence.
 Political - Participate in matters of the state.

Social Contract Theory

 A contract where people would give up a portion of their rights and the
government would protect these rights in return.
 Whereas, the people have the power to overthrow a government and
a create a new government.
 Formulate by Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and Thomas
Hobbes

TYPE OF FREEDOM KEY WORD PROPONENTS

Intellectual Power of Volition Aristotle and Plato
Moral and Spiritual Love is Freedom St. Thomas Aquinas
Individual Existentialsim Jean - Paul Sartre
Political Theory of Social Contract Jean Jacques Rousseau, John
Locke, and Thomas Hobbes