METHODS

OF
PHILOSOPHIZING
THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

1. We can acquire knowledge using our

senses; seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, and
smelling.
2. We can acquire knowledge by thinking with
the use of our minds.
ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
1. REALITY
“To know is to know something.”
- “something” (reality, existence, and being)
- It includes everything we perceive and everything
inside our heads which represents our inner world.
“If nothing exists knowledge is impossible”
ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
2. Perception
- Knowledge begins with perceptual knowledge.
- Aristotelain categories cannot be separated from the
entities that have it.

Example:
Color red cannot be separated from red objects.
Walking cannot be separated from the person that walks.
ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
3. CONCEPT
- Some of the things we perceive are similar to other
things.

Example:
Juan, Pedro, and Pablo we can form the concept
“MAN”
ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
4. PROPOSITION

-Is a statement that expresses either an assertion or a

denial.

Example:
“Men are mortals”
ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
5. Inference

How do we demonstrate that the statement is true?

- By providing an argument.

Example:
All men are mortals
Socrates is a man
Therefore Socrates is mortal
 REALIZE THAT METHODS OFPHILOSOPHY
THAT LEAD TO WISDOM AND TRUTH
• PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD
• the study of things as they appear (phenomena).
• descriptive rather than explanatory
• to provide a clear, undistorted description of the ways things appear
• based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they
are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of
anything independent of human consciousness.
 REALIZE THAT METHODS OFPHILOSOPHY
THAT LEAD TO WISDOM AND TRUTH
• ANALYTICAL METHOD
a philosophy method based on the idea that philosophical
problems can be solved through an analysis of their terms, and
pure, systematic logic.

ex. “Does God exist?" - analytical method answers this by

“What do you mean by God?” so before you can approach the
question of God’s existence you have to define your terms more
clearly.
 REALIZE THAT METHODS OFPHILOSOPHY
THAT LEAD TO WISDOM AND TRUTH
• HERMENEUTIC METHOD
- is the study of interpretation concerns the meaning of
interpretation—its basic nature, scope and validity, as well as its
place within and implications for human existence; and
- it treats interpretation in the context of fundamental
philosophical questions about being and knowing, language and
history, art and aesthetic experience, and practical life.
 REALIZE THAT METHODS OFPHILOSOPHY
THAT LEAD TO WISDOM AND TRUTH
• DIALECTIC METHOD

• used to describe a method of philosophical argument that

involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing
sides
• it is when two seemingly conflicting things are true at the same
time.
• For example, “It’s snowing and it is spring”.
 REALIZE THAT METHODS OFPHILOSOPHY
THAT LEAD TO WISDOM AND TRUTH
• THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
• the term “science” is derived from the Latin word
scientia that means “to produce knowledge.”
• is a process of determining truth or knowledge
through experimentation, inductive and deductive
reasoning, and hypothesis or theory testing.
 REALIZE THAT METHODS OFPHILOSOPHY
THAT LEAD TO WISDOM AND TRUTH
• THE SOCRATIC METHOD

• Socrates engaged in “didactic dialogue” of questioning

that is expressed in the critical examination and
cross examination of the positions of every
participant to the conversation.