METHODS OF

PHILOSOPHIZING
1. EMPIRICISM - is a theory based on the claim that experience is the source of
knowledge.
2. RATIONALISM - is a theory based on the claim that reason is the source of
knowledge.
3. INDUCTION - follow a flow from specific to general, relies on patterns and trends.
4. DEDUCTION - reasoning flows from general to specific, reasoning relies on facts
and rules.
5. ANALYTIC - focuses on logic and an evaluation of language to attempt to define
questions, analyze definitions and determine what is true about the world
6. ROMANTIC - emphasizes emotional self-awareness as a necessary pre-condition
to improving society and bettering the human condition.
7. DIALECTIC - defined as a process that makes use of contradictory statements or
ideas to reach an ultimate truth.
8. SYNOPTIC - is not concerned with the truth or falsehood of an idea or concept, but
strictly how a given idea or concept emerged and evolved within various disciplines
to increase human knowledge.

John Locke(1632 - 1704)

- He tried to clarify two questions. First, where we get our ideas from, and secondly,
whether we can rely on what our senses tell us.
- Locke’s claim is that all our thoughts and ideas issue from that which we have taken
in through the senses. Before we perceive anything, the mind is a ‘tabula rasa’—or
an empty slate.
- Locke distinguished between what he called ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ qualities.
- By primary qualities he meant extension, weight, motion and number, and so on.
When it is a question of qualities such as these, we can be certain that the senses
reproduce them objectively.
- But we also sense other qualities in things. We say that something is sweet or sour,
green or red, hot or cold. Locke calls these secondary qualities. Sensations like
these—color, smell, taste, sound—do not reproduce.

Rene Descartes(1596-1650)
- His main concern was with what we can know/certain knowledge.
- It is far from certain that we can rely on our senses.