2.

1 Introduction: Methods
of Philosophizing
by:
Orias, John Josep
Aranilla, Evanny
Abris, Jeroah Anne
Abuel, Angela Mae
Dalida, Shaira Mae
Javin, Rosette
Obciana, Jane Paulene
Permalino, Francine Mae
Rondilla, Leilanie
Zoleta, Dianne
A. Phenomenology : On Consciousness
Edmund Husserl, principal founder of phenomenology—
and thus one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th
century. He has made important contributions to almost all areas
of philosophy and anticipated central ideas of its neighbouring
disciplines such as linguistics, sociology and cognitive
psychology.

This focuses on careful inspection and description of phenomena or

appearances, defined as any object of conscious experience.

“ The thesis that truth is dependent on the peculiarities of thehuman

mind, and that philosophy is reductable to psycology. “
The word 'phenomenon' comes directly from the
Greek, which means 'appearance'.

Pheomenology is the scientific study of the essential

structures of consciousness.

Immanuel Kant was an influential Prussian German

philosopher in the Age of Enlightenment. In his doctrine of
transcendental idealism, he argued that space, time, and
causation are mere sensibilities; "things-in-themselves"
which exist, but their nature is unknowable.

That according to Husserl's , is where the trouble starts,

when one suppose that one experience is not or might not
be true.
1. The first and the best known is the epoche or “suspension” that
he describes in Ideas: General Introduction to Pure
Phenomenology. In which the phenomenologist “brackets” all
questions of truth or reality and simply describes the contents of
consciousness.
2. The second reductioneliminates the merely empirical contents of
consciousness and focuses instead of essential features, the meaning
of consciousness. Thus Husserl defends a notion of intuitionthat differs
from and is more specialized than the ordinary notion of “experience”.
Some institutions are eidetic, that is , they reveal necessary truths, not
just the contingencies of the natural world. These are the essence of
phenomenology.
B. Existentialism: On Freedom
Existentialism is a tradition of philosophical enquiry which takes as
its starting point the experience of the human subject—not merely
the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.
• the human condition or the relation of the individual to the world;
• the human response to that condition;
• being, especially the difference between the being of the person (whixh is
“existence”) and the being of the other kind of things;
• human freedom;
• the significance (and unavoidability) of choice and decision in the absence
of certain and;
• the concreteness and subjectivity of life as lived, against abstractions and
false objectifications.
Soren Kierkegaard Edmund Husserl
Existentialism is often thought to be antireligious; nevertheless, there has been strong
current of Christian existentialism, beginning with the 19th century, Danish philosopher
Kierkegaard. As the frist existentialist Kierkegaard insisted that the authentic self was the
personally chosen self, as opposed to public or “herd” identity.

Existentialism's relationship to the phenomenology is a matter of some controversy.

However, some philosophers, such as Jean-Paul Sarte, have employed phenomenological
methods to arrive at or support their specific variations on existential themes.

Existentialism with Sarte's , emphasizes the importance of the free individual choice,
regardless of the power of other people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs and
decisions.

Sarte argued that consciousness (being-for-itself) is such that it is always free to choose
(though not free to choose) and free to “negate” (reject) the given features of the world.
One is never free of one's “situation”, but one is always free to reject that situation and try
to change it.

“To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to imagine, free to choose

and responsible for one's life.”( Solomon & Higgins 2010)
Freedom is a state of mind; it is a philosophical concept reflecting an
inalienable human right to realize one's human will. Outside of freedom, a
person can not realize the wealth of his inner world and his capabilities.
Freedom begins exactly where a person deliberately restricts himself.

Freedom is a condition in which people have the opportunity to speak, act

and pursue happiness without unnecessary external restrictions. Freedom
is important because it leads to enhanced expressions of creativity and
original thought, increased productivity, and an overall high quality of life.

Types of Human Freedom

• Freedom to choose one's state in life.
• Freedom of talking to each other.
• Freedom of religion.
C. Postmodernism: On Cultures
In Western philosophy, postmodernism a late 20th-century movement
characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a
general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of
ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.

Postmodernists believe that humanity should come at truth beyong

rational to the non-rational elements of human nature, inclusing the
spiritual.

Postmodernism is not a philosophy. It is best described as a holding

pattern, perhaps a cry for despair. It rightly talks about world
philosophy, the philosophy of many cultures, but such talk is not a
philosophy either.
D. Analytic Tradition
Analytic philosophy, also called linguistic philosophy, a loosely related set of
approaches to philosophical problems, dominant in Anglo-American philosophy
from the early 20th century, that emphasizes the study of language and the
logical analysis of concepts.

Any of various philosophical methodologies holding that clear and precise

definition and argumentation are vital to productive philosophical inquiry. A
philosophical school of the 20th century predominant in the United States and
Great Britain whose central concerns are the nature of logic, concepts, and
language.
In a broad sense, the practice of seeking better understanding through the
analysis of complex, obscure, or problematic linguistic expressions has been
present within philosophy from its pre-Socratic origins to the present.
E. Logic and Critical Thinking: Tools in
Reasoning
Logic is the science of how to evaluate arguments and reasoning. Critical
thinking is a process of evaluation which uses logic to separate truth from
falsehood, reasonable from unreasonable beliefs. They are essential to making
good decisions and forming sound beliefs about our world.
Using logic, a person evaluates arguments and strives to distinguish between
good and bad reasoning, or between truth and falsehood. Using logic, you can
evaluate ideas or claims people make, make good decisions, and form sound
beliefs about the world.
So, logical thinking has to do with the philosophical branch of logic, or essentially
stringing arguments together so that they make sense. Critical thinking on the
other hand is the ability to judge whatever you are perceiving with the intent of
gaining a balanced understanding.
 Validity and Soundness of an Argument
Validity and Soundness. A deductive argument is said to be valid if and only if it
takes a form that makes it impossible for the premises to be true and the
conclusion nevertheless to be false. ... A deductive argument is sound if and only
if it is both valid, and all of its premises are actually true.

Strength of an Argument
: A strong argument is a non-deductive argument that succeeds in providing
probable, but not conclusive, logical support for its conclusion. A weak argument
is a non-deductive argument that fails to provide probable support for its
conclusion.
How to ealuate an argument:
Identify the conclusion and the premises.
Put the argument in standard form.
Decide if the argument is deductive or non-deductive.
Determine whether the argument succeeds logically.
If the argument succeeds logically, assess whether the premises are true. ...
Make a final judgement: is the argument good or bad?
F. Fallacies
On the other hand, a fallacy is defect in an argument other than its having
false premises. To detect fallacies it is required to examine the argument's
content. Here are some of the usually committed errors in reasoning and thus,
coming up with false conclusion and worst, destorting the truth.

a. Appeal to pity (argumentum ad misericordian)

a specific kind of appeal to emotion in which someone tries to win support
for an argument or idea by exploiting his/her opponent's feelings of pity or guilt.
b. Appeal to ignorancece (argumentum ad ignorantiam)
whatever has not been proved false mustv be true, and vice versa
c. Equivocation
this is logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word several times, but giving
the particular word a different meaning each time. Example: Human beings
have hands; The clock has hands. He is drinking from the pitcher of water; He
is a baseball pitcher.
d. Composition
this infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of
some part of the whole. The reverse of this fallacy is division.
e. Division
one reasons logically that something true of a thing must also be true of all
or some of its parts.
f. Against the person (argumentum ad hominem)
this fallacy attempts to link the validity of premise to a characteristic or belief
of a person advocating the premise. However, in some instances, questions of
personal conduct, character, motivates etc. are legitimate if relevant to the
issue.
g. Appeal to force (argumentum ad baculum)
an argument were force, coercion, or the threath of force, is given as a
justification for a conclusion.
h. Appeal to the people (argumentum ad populum)
an argument that appeals or exploit people's vanities, desired for esteem
and an anchoring on popularity.
i. False cause (post hoc)
since the event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this
one. This fallacy is also reffered to as coincidental correlation, or correlation not
causation.
j. Hasty generalization
one commits errors if one reaches an inductive generalization based on
insufficient evidence. The fallacy is commonly based on a broad conclusion
upon the statistics of a survey of a small group that fails to sufficiently represent
the whole completion.
k. Begging the queation (petitio principii)
this is a type of fallacy in which the proposition toe proven is assumed
implicitly or explicitly in the premise.
 QUESTIONS:

1. Who founded the phenomenology which focuses on careful

inspection and conscious experiences.

2. The relationship of phenomenology is a matter of controvers.

What is it?

3. It is the conviction of significant degree rooted in language and

can be solved by a sound of understanding.

4. It has not been proved false must be true and vice versa.

5. Methods of way of looking truth and what will be considered

“opinions”.