PHILOSOPHY

When can we say

that we are
philosophizing?
 PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy starts
when we become
curious and start
questioning.
 PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy begins
when we become
critical (analytical)
about life and the
world.
 BRAIN TEASERS
There are three houses. One is
red, one is blue, and one is
white. If the red house is to the
left of the house in the middle,
and the blue house is to the
right to the house in the middle,
where is the white house?
 BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

In Washington,
D.C.
 BRAIN TEASERS

You are in a cabin and it is pitch

black. You have one match on
you. Which do you light first, the
newspaper, the lamp, the
candle, or the fire?
 BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

You light the

match first!
 BRAIN TEASERS

Who is bigger: Mr.

Bigger, Mrs. Bigger, or
their baby?
 BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

The baby,
because he is a little
bigger.
 BRAIN TEASERS

Mike is a butcher. He is
5’10” tall. What does he
weigh?
BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

Meat
 BRAIN TEASERS

Before Mt. Everest was

discovered, what was the
highest mountain in the
world?
 BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

Mt. Everest.
It was still the highest in the
world. It just had not been
discovered yet!
 BRAIN TEASERS

Which travels
faster? Hot or Cold?
 BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

Hot is faster, because

you can catch a cold.
 BRAIN TEASERS

What can you hold

without ever
touching or using
your hands?
BRAIN TEASERS
ANSWER:

Your breath!
right. Behind one is 2 million dollars, and
behind the other is a donkey. Choose the
correct door to win the prize. There are also
two men in front of the doors, and they know
which door leads to the millions. One wears a
black hat, and the other wears a white hat.
The host explains that one of the men is a liar,
and will always lie, and the other man will
always tell the truth – but you do not know
which is which. You can ask only one of the
men only one question. What is the question,
and which man do you ask to ensure you win
the money?
 ANSWER:

You ask either man the following

question: “If I asked the other guy
which door has the money, what
would he say?” and then choose the
opposite door.
 ANSWER:

If you ask the question to the liar, he

will lie about the ‘correct’ answer, so
you must choose the opposite door. If
you ask the truth teller, he will tell the
truth about the lie, so you can choose
the opposite door as well.
Methods of
Philosophizi
ng
Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person
Methods of Philosophizing

Analytic Logic
Tradition and
Critical
Phenomenolog Thinking
y

Postmodernis
m Fallacies

Existentialis
m

25
Objectives
By the end of the lesson, you should have:

• appraised situations that manifest opinions and/or

truths
• made use the different ways of philosophizing
• showed appreciation of the different ways of
philosophizing

Methods of Philosophizing 26
Preliminaries
• Philosophizing is to think or express oneself in a
philosophical manner.
 discusses a matter from a philosophical
standpoint

◈The critical aspect in doing

philosophy is rational inquiry
◈ Reason requires a test that what we claim as truth is
verifiable and can be validated in the physical
world(consistent with the world)
Nature of Belief
◈BELIEF – refers to the acceptance that a
statement is true of that something exist.
◈Traditional conception - ( Agustinian period)
characterized belief as “to think with assent”
Ex. If you believe that 12 + 7 = 19, then you
comprehend and affirm that the proposition is true
whether you are considering it at a particular
moment or not
Nature of Belief
◈Contemporary conception – belief includes the
forms of representation of a belief
qualitative form – the quality of the object of
your belief
quantitative form – the quantitative character
of the object of your belief
Ex. Wooden table
Nature of Belief
◈Object of Belief – what is it that one accepts or
assents to when one has a belief?
◈The object of belief is the representation of the
fact found in the world or truth conditions about
the world.
Nature of Belief

◈Belief is your affirmation or

conviction about you and the
world which you are either
aware of or considering at the
moment.
Nature of Truth
◈The correspondence theory of
truth – the key to truth is the relation
(or correspondence) between
propositions and the world.
◈Weakness – this theory is criticized in
its limitation to give future predictions
due to the indeterminate state of affair
it refers
Nature of Truth
◈Coherence theory of truth – the truth of
any (true) proposition consists in its
coherence with some specified set of
propositions (significant wholes)
i.e. a belief is true if and only if it is part of a
coherent system of beliefs.
Weakness – what is really meant by
“cohere”? What makes truth true?
Nature of Truth
◈Pragmatic theory of truth – a
proposition is true if it is useful to believe
(utility is the essential mark of truth)
◈The given proposition is true only if it leads
to success.
◈Weakness – questions on the relativity of
truth.
 JIGSAW GROUP DISCUSSION
◈ Each members of the jigsaw group will be assigned a
topic and will form a group together with other members
of jigsaw groups who were assigned the same topic.
◈ Each group becomes expert on a topic given.
◈ To realize this, members of the expert group should
engage in discussion and sharing using the guide
questions.
◈ After the sharing, each expert then returns to the jigsaw
group with members of each of the other expert groups.
Students in this group teach one another the information
learned in the expert group.
Phenomenology

Processing Questions:
1. How can we set aside our
presuppositions?
2. What makes the contents of our
consciousness more important than
the things of the natural world?
Existentialism

Processing Questions:
1. What is true freedom from
the point of view of
existentialism.
2. How can we become
authentic persons.
Postmodernism

Processing Questions:
1. Should we realize the limits of
reason and objectivism to arrive at
truth?
2. How does cultural relativism look
at realities?
Analytic tradition

Processing Questions:
1. Can language objectively
describe truth?
2. How can we solve philosophical
problems, puzzles, and error
rooted in language.
Logic and Critical Thinking

Processing Questions:
1. How can we uncover bias and
prejudice and open to new ideas?
2. How can we arrive at valid and
sound argument?
 PHENOMENOLOGY:
On Consciousness

◈A method for finding and

guaranteeing the truth that focuses
on careful inspection and description
of phenomena or appearances.
◈It comes form the Greek word
phainómenon meaning
“appearance.”
◈It is the scientific study of the
essential structures of
PHENOMENOLOGY
◈Phenomenology is the study of structures
of consciousness as experienced from
the first-person point of view. The central
structure of an experience is its
intentionality, its being directed toward
something, as it is an experience of or
about some object. An experience is
directed toward an object by virtue of its
content or meaning (which represents
the object) together with appropriate
 PHENOMENA
◈ appearances of things, or things as they appear in
our experience, or the ways we experience things,
thus the meanings things have in our experience
◈ Phenomenon is what we experience
◈ phenomena is beyond what we perceive
◈ We experience phenomena because we have
consciousness – thus a phenomena is not
just an exploration of an experience but an
experience of consciousness itself and of structures
that has to be there to make an experience there
Husserl’s phenomenology
◈Husserl’s phenomenology is the thesis
that consciousness is intentional.
◈Every act of consciousness is directed
at some object or another, possibly a
material object or an “ideal” object.
 The basic intentional structure of consciousness,

◈involves further forms of experience.

◈temporal awareness (within the stream of
consciousness),
◈ spatial awareness (notably in perception),
◈attention (distinguishing focal and marginal
or “horizonal” awareness),
◈awareness of one’s own experience
(self-consciousness, in one sense),
◈ self-awareness (awareness-of-
oneself),
◈the self in different roles (as
thinking, acting, etc.),
◈purpose or intention in action (more
or less explicit),
◈awareness of other persons (in
empathy, intersubjectivity,
collectivity),
◈ linguistic activity (involving meaning,
communication, understanding
others),
◈ social interaction (including collective
action), and
◈everyday activity in our surrounding
noesis and noema
◈ noesis and noema, from the Greek verb noéō
(νοέω), meaning to perceive, think, intend,
whence the noun nous or mind.
◈ The intentional process of consciousness is called
noesis, while its ideal content is called noema.
◈ The noema of an act of consciousness Husserl
characterized both as an ideal meaning and as
“the object as intended”.
◈ Thus the phenomenon, or object-as-it-appears,
becomes the noema, or object-as-it-is-intended.
• The phenomenologist can describe the
content of consciousness and
accordingly, the object of
consciousness without any particular
commitment to the actuality or
existence of that object.
• Phenomenology uncovers the essential
structures of experience and its
objects.
Husserl’s Phenomenological
Standpoint
 The first and best known is the epoche
or “suspension” that “brackets” all
questions of truth or reality and simply
describes the contents of
consciousness.
 The second reduction eliminates the
merely empirical contents of
consciousness and focuses instead on
◈Phenomenologists
are interested in the
contents of
consciousness, not on
things of the natural
 Phenomenology: On consciousness

• founded by Edmund Husserl.

• A method for finding and guaranteeing the
truth that focuses on careful inspection
and description of phenomena or
appearances.
• It comes form the Greek word phainómenon
meaning “appearance.”

• It is the scientific study of the essential

structures of consciousness.

Methods of Philosophizing 55
 Phenomenology: On consciousness

• Every act of consciousness is directed at

some object or another, possibly a material
object or an “ideal” object.

• Phenomenology uncovers the essential

structures of experience and its objects.

Methods of Philosophizing 56
Husserl’s Phenomenological
Standpoint
 The first and best known is the epoche
or “suspension” that “brackets” all
questions of truth or reality and simply
describes the contents of
consciousness.
 The second reduction eliminates the
merely empirical contents of
consciousness and focuses instead
on the essential features, the
meanings of consciousness.

Methods of Philosophizing 57
 Existentialism: On Freedom
• Existentialism is not primarily a philosophical method
nor is it exactly a set of doctrines but more of an
outlook or attitude supported by diverse doctrines
centered on certain common themes.
 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 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.
• Existentialism emphasizes the importance of
free individual choice, regardless of the
power of other people to influence and
coerce our desires, beliefs, and decisions.
• To be human, to be conscious, is to be
free to imagine, free to choose, and
responsible for one’s life.
• One of the continuing criticisms of
existentialism is the obscurity and the
seeming elusiveness of the ideal of
authenticity.
Existentialism
• Existentialism is not
primarily a philosophical
method nor is it exactly a
set of doctrines but more
of an outlook or attitude
supported by diverse
doctrines centred on
certain common themes.

Methods of Philosophizing 61
 Themes:
the human response to
the human that condition;

condition or the
relation of the being, especially the difference
individual to the between the being of person (which is
“existence”) and the being of other
world;
kinds of things;

the concreteness and

human subjectivity of life as
freedom; lived, against
the significance (and unavoidability) abstractions and false
of choice and decision in the objectifications.
absence of certainty and;

Methods of Philosophizing 62
Existentialism:
On Freedom
• Existentialism
emphasizes the
importance of free
individual choice,
regardless of the power
of other people to
influence and coerce our
desires, beliefs, and
decisions.

Methods of Philosophizing 63
Existentialism
• To be human, to be
conscious, is to be free to
imagine, free to choose,
and responsible for one’s
life.

Methods of Philosophizing 64
 Postmodernism: On
Cultures
• Postmodernism is not a philosophy.
• “Postmodernism” has come into vogue as the name for a
rather diffuse family of ideas and trends that in significant
respect rejects, challenges, or aims to supersede
“modernity”.
• Postmodernists believe that humanity should come at
truth beyond the rational to the non-rational elements of
human nature, including the spiritual.
• Beyond exalting individual analysis of truth,
postmodernists adhere to a relational, holistic approach.
Postmodernism: On
Cultures

• Postmodernism is not a
philosophy.

Methods of Philosophizing 66
Postmodernism: On
Cultures

• More of an attitude and a

reaction to modernism
which is a worldview of
order, logic, and authority
based on knowledge.

Methods of Philosophizing 67
Postmodernism: On
Cultures

• It rightly talks about

world philosophy, the
philosophy of many
cultures, but such talk is
not a philosophy either.
• (Shields, 2012)

Methods of Philosophizing 68
Postmodernism: On
Cultures

• Beyond exalting
individual analysis of
truth, postmodernists
adhere to a relational,
holistic approach.

Methods of Philosophizing 69
Postmodernism: On
Cultures

• There is no one truth that

is true for all people at all
times, but there are
several truths that are
true and unique for each
person.
• There is no objective
truth.

Methods of Philosophizing 70
Analytic
Tradition
For analytic
philosophers, language
cannot objectively
describe truth because
language is socially
conditioned.

Methods of Philosophizing 71
Analytic
Tradition
• Analytic philosophy is the
conviction that to some significant
degree, philosophical problems,
puzzles, and errors are rooted in
language and can be solved or
avoided by a sound
understanding of
language and careful
attention to its workings.

Methods of Philosophizing 72
Logic and Critical
Thinking: Tools in
reasoning
Critical thinking also
Logic is Critical takes into
centred in thinking is consideration cultural
the analysis distinguishing systems, values, and
and facts and beliefs and helps us
construction opinions or uncover bias and
of personal prejudice and be open
arguments. to new ideas not
feelings.
necessarily in
agreement with
previous thought.

Methods of Philosophizing 73
Two basic types of
Reasoning
Inductive Deductive reasoning
reasoning which draws
conclusion from
which is based usually one broad
from judgment or
observations in definition and one
order to make more specific
generalizations assertion, often an
inference.
.

Methods of Philosophizing 74
Validity and soundness of
an Argument
An argument
is valid and sound if it is a product
of logically constructed premises.
(deductive argument)

Methods of Philosophizing 75
Strength of an argument
Inductive reasoning are surveys.

Inductive arguments cannot prove

if the premises are true which also
determine the truth of the
conclusion.

Methods of Philosophizing 76
 Fallacies

Fallacies
• A fallacy is a defect in an
argument.
• Fallacies are detected by
examining the contents of the
argument.
• Common fallacies
Appeal to pity (Argumentum ad
misericordiam)
 An attempt to win support for an argument or
idea by exploiting his or her opponent’s
feelings of pity or guilt.
e.g. If I don’t get at least a 81 in this
course my GPA will drop and I will not
be included to honor students. If that
happens I’ll lose my scholarship and
have to quit school, so I ought to get a
81 in this course.
"I know the exam is graded based on
performance, but you should give me an A.
My cat has been sick, my car broke down,
and I've had a cold, so it was really hard for
me to study!"

"It's wrong to tax corporations--think of all

the money they give to charity, and of the
costs they already pay to run their
businesses!"

Just do as I ask before you give me a heart

attack!
Appeal to ignorance (Argumentum
ad ignorantiam)
 What has not been proven false must be
true and vice versa.

e.g. Since you cannot prove that

ghosts do not exist, they probably
exist.
Since scientists cannot prove that
global warming will occur, it probably
won't.
People have been trying for centuries to
prove that God exists. But no one has yet
been able to prove it. Therefore, God does
not exist.

People have been trying for years to prove that God

does not exist. But no one has yet been able to
prove it. Therefore, God exists
Equivocation
 A logical chain of reasoning of a term or a
word several times, but giving the particular
word a different meaning each time.
“I did not have sexual relations with that
woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told
anybody to lie, not a single time; never.
These allegations are false.”

That kid’s a little terror! I

hope he doesn’t fly planes
into buildings some day!
Composition
 Something is true of the whole from the
fact that it is true of some part of the
whole.

Each singer in the

choir sings well. It
follows that the choir
sings well.
Division
 Something true of a thing must also be true
of all or some of its parts.

Good teachers have almost

become extinct. Dr. Leung is a
good teacher. Therefore, Dr. Leung
has almost become extinct.

AD grade 12 is very generous

class. It follows that Moses is
generous
Against the Person (Argumentum ad
hominem)
 It links the validity of a premise to a
characteristic or belief of the person
advocating the premise.
Duterte’s words should not be
taken because he is _____.

Teacher: You should not skip class.

Student: I don’t think you have never skipped
class.
How can you say he’s a good
musician when he’s been in and
out of rehab for three years?
He’s a liar so there’s no reason
to listen to him.

We should disregard that scientist’s

argument because they are being funded
by the logging industry.

You’re telling me to stop speeding on

the highway? You’ve received more
speeding tickets than I have.
Appeal to force (Argumentum ad baculum)
 An argument where force, coercion, or the threat of
force is given as a justification for a conclusion.

You ought to vote for Senator

Trillanes, because if you don’t, I’ll
burn your house down.

I deserve an A for my test. You

should know that my father is a
good friend of College Principal.
Only fools believe in
what he says. You don't
believe in him, don't
you?
So you’re an animal rights activist.
I’d consider changing my views if
I were you because most of us
here on the prairies are beef
farmers and we don’t care too
much for your kind.
Appeal to the people
(Argumentum ad populum)
 An argument that appeals or exploits
people’s vanities, desire for esteem, and
anchoring on popularity.

Many students choose this

course. Therefore, you
should also take it.
Master Platinum Card is not
for everyone. You may be
one of the select few.

Many of our members are

celebrities. Of course you also
want to join our Yoga club.
False cause (post hoc)
 Since that event followed this one,
that event must have been caused
by this one.
Since Governor Smith took office,
unemployment for minorities in the
state has decreased by seven percent.
Governor Smith should be applauded
for reducing unemployment among
minorities.
Tom was seen in the vicinity of
the broken window at about the
time that it was broken, so he
must have done it.

As TV watching has increased

over the last decade, so has the
crime rate. So TV producers must
be responsible for the raise in
crime rate.
Hasty generalization
 Making an inductive generalization
based on insufficient evidence.
I’ve hired three business majors as student
help in the past year. All three were lazy and
shiftless. Obviously all business majors are
lazy and shiftless.

Deaths from drug overdoses in Metropolis have

doubled over the last three years. Therefore,
more Americans than ever are dying from drug
abuse.
Everyone knows that
smoking marijuana is
physically addictive and
psychologically harmful.

You should try this

cold-medicine. It
works for me.
Begging the question (petitio
principii)
 An argument where the proposition to
be proven is assumed implicitly or
explicitly in the premise.
Students should not be allowed
to park in lots now reserved for
faculty because those lots
should be for faculty only.
Humans and apes evolved from
common ancestors. Just look how
similar they are.
Wrestling is dangerous because it is
unsafe.
Jogging is fun because it is enjoyable

People who are not interesting

have no sense of humor, because
everyone who has a sense of
humor also is interesting.
Summative
Assessment 98
 Research: Current Issues
Report/Share it
Article
to the Class
What Pros
Own way of
Where and presenting
When Cons Ex. Power
How Point, talk
show, debate

Your own standpoint applying

the different philosophical
methods

Cite Sources
99