NAME: _________________________________________

DATE: March 14 and 28, 2023

Teacher: Ms. Lovely May P. Aranjuez

Subject: INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY

Topic: Lesson 3: METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING

5 C’s Values Critical thinking

Duration 1 hour 30 mins.

Tuesday and Thursday Grade 11 Holy Trinity
Learning Objectives: The Learners:
D- Realize that methods of philosophy lead to rational thinking, wisdom, and truth.
M- Apply the theories of critical thinking in making strong and decisions.
W- pray that as a person can distinguish opinion from truth.
Reference: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person (Christine Carmela R. Ramos, PhD)
page 33-38

METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING

In the previous lesson, the meaning and process of doing philosophy emphasizing the importance of holism, as well
as learning how to construct philosophical essays were introduced. This lesson shall introduce the methods or ways of
looking at Truth and what will be considered as mere “opinions”. Philosophizing is to think or express oneself in rational and
logical manner.

Phenomenology -truth is based on the person’s consciousness.

Existentialism- truth is based on the person’s and personal freedom.
Post-modernism-it is accepted the truth is not absolute (i.e., cultural)
Logic- truth is based on reasoning and critical thinking.

A. PHENOMENOLOGY: On Consciousness
Edmund Husserl (Austrian-German philosopher) founded phenomenology, which is
essentially a philosophical method. Phenomenology focuses on careful inspection
and description of phenomena or appearances defined as any object of conscious
experience, that which we are conscious (Johnston, 2006). This means anything that
we are rationally and intentionally thinking about (IDEAS).
LOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS, He argued against psychologism; the idea that truth is
dependent on the peculiarities of the human mind, and that philosophy is reducible to
psychology.
Psychology means biological and cognitive matters of the mind. In the other words, it
was an argument against the very thesis that he himself had argued in his first book on the philosophy of the
arithmetic. He continuing effort was dedicated to developing a method for finding and guaranteeing the truth in
all things both scientific and in daily life- that method was phenomenology.
Husserl intended a similar meaning (Phenomenon means appearance) except for crucial fact that for him, it does
not imply a contrast between the appearance and some underlying realities, between the phenomenon and a
“noumenon” or thing-in-itself”.

Phenomenon comes from the word Greek meaning “appearance.”

Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, had used the same word to refer to the world of our experience.

PHENOMENOLOGY

O’Hear (1999) studied reality and the structures of consciousness known as phenomenology.

 The Phenomenological method is a series that continuously revises our perceptions of reality.
 Removes or “brackets-outs” the non-essentials. The human mind is conscious of its environment, intentional and
directed at a material object or idea.
 A phenomenologist distinguishes thought processes as it perceives objects of reality.

THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STANDPOINT OF HUSSERL.

1. Best known is the epoche or “suspension” that he described “brackets” all questions of truth or reality and simply
describes the contents of consciousness.
2. Reduction eliminates merely empirical contents of consciousness and focuses instead on the essential features,
meaning of consciousness (reveals necessary truth).

B. EXISTENTIALISM: ON FREEDOM
 More of an outlook or attitude supported by diverse doctrines centered on certain common themes.
These themes include:
 The human condition or the relation of the individual to the world.
 The human response to the condition.
 Being, especially the difference between the being of person (which is “existence”) and the being of other kinds of
things.
 Human freedom.
 The significance (and unavoidability) of choice and decision in the absence of certainty, and
 The concreteness and subjectivity of life as lived, against abstractions and false objectifications.
Søren Kierkegaard (Danish philosopher)
Existentialism is often thought to be anti-religious because it questions the basis and purpose of
man’s existence in the world, nevertheless, has been a strong current of Christian existentialism,
beginning with 19th century.
As the first existentialist, He insisted that authentic self was the personally-chosen self, as
opposed to public or “herd” identity which is the tendency of people to blindly follow the crowd
because it is familiar, easy, and less stressful.
Friedrich Nietzsche took this view of opposition of the genuine individual versus the public “herd” identity.
Keirkegard and Nietzsche influenced Martin Heidegger whose conception of ownness came to dominate
contemporary existentialist thought.
Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher)
Existentialism’s relationship to phenomenology is a matter of some controversies. However,
some philosophers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre have employed phenomenological methods to
arrive at or support their specific variation’s existential themes.
Our search for the truth by means of critical thinking is a rational choice.
Emphasizes the importance of free individual choice, regardless of the power of the people
to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs and decisions.
To be human, to be conscious is to free imagine, free to choose and responsible for one’s life
(Solomon & Higgins, 2010).
This implies that a person might not be able to change his circumstances, but he can change his attitudes toward
that situation.
Socrates
Already concerned himself with the authenticity of the self “the good of his soul”.
Prescribed not just right action but virtue, being “true to oneself”.
 Promoted the self-examination of one’s beliefs and values in order to escape from bias and stereotypes.
He famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living.
St. Augustine of Hippo
Concerned with the spiritual nature of the “true” self as opposed to the inauthentic demands of desire and body.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Was adamant about the essential goodness of the “natural self” in contrast to the “corruption” imposed by society.

Existentialism is a philosophical movement in part because of its literary expressions by writers such as Sartre, Albert Camus,
Simon de Beauvoir and Gabriel Marcel.

Activity: LET’S APPLY (CRITICAL THINKING CHARACTER)

DIRECTIONS: Fill in the table below with the main proponents of method of philosophizing. For each Method, answer the
questions.

METHOD OF PHILOSOPHIZING What have I learned?

PHENOMENOLOGY

EXISTENTIALISM