METHODS OF

PHILOSOPHIZING
 In today’s society, we encounter a lot of
information from various sources such as
How do we know
the media and our interactions with our
if they are telling friends, family, and members of the
community. Most of the information we
the truth?
receive is helpful, but some may mislead us
or may even be utterly false. Every day we
are confronted with news, claims and
announcements from our peers, family
members, figures of authority, the
government, and media.
Philosophers often grapple with the concept of
truth. Knowledge must be truthful to gain
validity and acceptance. For example, when we
answer a “True or False” test, we judge if the
statements we read are true or false. This
means that statements may have truth or may
not have truth. Statements about the world or
reality are called

Propositions
and these propositions may or may not carry
truth. Propositions are usually stated as short
statements or sentences.
 1.The idea that the death
penalty is a good way to stop
crime.
example of a 2. A suggestion for a change in
the terms of company
proposition bylaws.

3. Suggested expansion of a
business.
 Knowledge is the clear awareness and
understanding of something. It is the
product of questions that allow for clear

WHAT IS THE answers provided by the facts. Our

knowledge is comprised of ideas and
TRUTH AND beliefs that we know to be true.

WHY IS IT
IMPORTANT?
 One important aspect of
knowledge- it is based on reality.
This simply means that what we
know is what is observable or
evident in the real world.
Propositions or statements which
are observed to be real or truthful

are considered facts.

 There are statements, however,
that are not evidently or
immediately known to be true. This

statement is claim and further

,

examination is required to establish

whether it is true or false.
 A teenager who wants a new cellular
phone makes the following claims:

Examples Every other girl in her school has a cell

phone.
of Claim: She will be safer with a cell phone
because she can call 911.

A cell phone with Internet access will

help her do homework.
 Science considers truth as
something observable and
empirical. This means that any
claim can be proven by
verification and
experimentation.
 Ancient Greek Philosophers
approached the problem of truth by
looking at the nature of knowledge
and how we know what we know.
We assume that everything we

HOW DO WE know about this world is true. But

philosophers who pondered upon
KNOW IF the origins of knowledge doubted
everything there is to know about
SOMETHING IS
themselves and the world.
TRUTH?
Doubt has very important purpose

in philosophy as it drives our desire to

discover truth. In philosophy, systematic
doubt is employed to determine truth. This
means that every statement, claim,
evidence, and is scrutinized and analyzed.
Nothing is taken as true unless there is
sufficient reason and evidence to prove that
is indeed true. Let’s rewrite the statements
as questions to make them easier to
analyzed.
 The obvious answer would be
Am I alive? examine yourself to determine
if indeed you are alive, that you
Do I have a
have a body, and you can
body? breathe. Then you can now

Can I breathe? say: I am alive! I have a

body! I can breathe!
• One perspectives on truth- a belief is true if it
can be justified or proven through the use of
one’s senses.

• Another basis for determining the truth- a

belief for statement is true if it is based on
facts.

• Getting consensus or having people agree on a

common belief is another way of determining
what is true. But this approach has certain
limitations. For example, if you can get your
classmates to agree that you do not need to
study to become successful, it does not make
that belief true. Therefore, you have to use
other means to really answer the question.
HOW CAN
PHILOSOPHY  Opinions are statements go

GUIDE US IN beyond providing facts. They also provide

conclusions or perspectives regarding certain
situations. Some of statements even advance a
DISTINGUISHIN belief about a certain thing or person. Opinions
are also the bases for making arguments and
G TRUTH FROM convincing people that a certain claim is a fact.

OPINION?
 Ann can have the opinion that Italian food
tastes best, while Joe has the opinion that
French food is ideal.

Example
Sue can have the opinion that reading is

of boring, while Mike can have the opinion

that reading is fun.

Opinions
Penny can have the opinion that cold
weather is better, while Tim can prefer hot
weather.
 Conclusion is a judgement
based on certain facts.

 Beliefs are statements that express

convictions that are not easily clearly
explained by facts. To judge the truthfulness
of belief, we must also consider things if we
rely merely on facts.

 Explanations are
statements that assume the claim to be true
and provide reasons why the statement is
true.
 • Who learns quicker – adults or children?

Finally, I feel that we cannot generalize about children

or adults being better learners. It depends on the
situation and the motivation of the person, and the

Example of level of enthusiasm he or she has for learning.

Conclusion
• Should dangerous sports be banned?

In summary, our society would be healthier if more

people took part in sports of all kinds. We should
continue to try to prevent accidents and injuries.
However, we should also ensure that sports are
challenging, exciting, and, above all, fun.
Examples of
Beliefs
Example of
Explanation
 Arguments are a series of statements
that provide reasons to convince the reader or
listener that a claim or opinion is truthful.
Thus we need to be very careful when we
listen to arguments since not all arguments
are truthful.

 Arguments often take the form of

statements that are either claims of facts and
are phrased in such a way that they seem
reasonable. However, a number of arguments
may be based on faulty reasoning. These kinds

of arguments are called fallacies. Some of

these fallacies may be intentional, as the
person making the claim is desperate to
convince you to accept his or her argument.
Example of
argument
 Bias or the personal views of the
person presenting. Biases are not
necessarily errors in reasoning, but refer to
tendencies or influences which affect the
views of people.
HOW CAN AN  Understanding of opinions and facts and
the means to distinguish one from the
UNDERSTANDING
other can further improve our
OF THE understanding and appreciation of varied
DIFFERENCE views and ideas.

BETWEEN TRUTH The ability to determine truth goes hand in

hand with the holistic perspective and
AND OPINION
enables us to make wiser decisions,
LEAD US TO especially in choosing the ideas and views
WISDOM? which we find acceptable.
 An individual cannot live his or
her life just agreeing with
everybody he or she meets. A
critical mind aided by philosophy
can help us form our own personal
point of view that can guide us in
making decisions and actions when
faced with a problem.
 Philosophy can help us
determine ideas that are truthful
and acceptable which we can then
use to form our own views
regarding certain matters.