PHILOSOPHY MD TERM

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FIRST SEMESTER | LECTURE 3: METHODS OF - 26
PHILOSOPHIZING 2.2 -

Socrates desires is for the person to realize

METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING
his ignorance and contradictions, and
Exploring some of the methods of philosophizing that thereby correcting his own mistakes and
philosophers employ. According to Wilber (2006), think arriving at a complete knowledge of the
of wisdom as the summit of the mountain with different true meaning of the word.
paths to get there. We are going to study the different - The Socratic Method was modernized and
paths to wisdom the philosophers offer. treated in a different way by George Hegel, a
German philosopher. Hegel was an idealist.
1. The Dialectic Method He believed that the ideas of the human
- This method of philosophizing was conceived minds have access of what the world is like.
by the Greek philosopher Socrates, (born People are social beings and could be
470 BCE) one of the great philosophers of the completely influenced by other people's
ancient world. Unfortunately, he did not ideas. An individual's mind is influenced by
leave any written words and everything means of a common language, customs of
people know about him came from the one's society, and the cultural institutions
Dialogues written by his famous student, that one belongs to. Hegel refers this to
Plato "Spirit" as the collective consciousness of a
- Socrates' aim was to achieve what he called society which is responsible for honing one's
the good life which is based on the proper consciousness and ideas.
care of one's soul (psyche in Greek). The - Hegel also believed that the Spirit is
soul, according to Socrates, can be properly constantly changing and evolving,
taken care of if we make it as good as according to Hegel, the spirit changes through
possible. Since by its very nature the soul's dialectic. First, there is an idea about the
activity is to know, the soul can only be good world (much like a thesis), which has a
if we employ it in the activity of having a clear natural characteristic of having errors which
awareness the meaning of some words give rise to the antithesis. The thesis and
(Stumpf 2008). When we have a clear antithesis can be eventually resolved creating
awareness of what justice is, we harm our synthesis which is a new idea comprised of
soul if we act contrary to what we know, like the essentials of both the thesis and the
harming others (which is the opposite of antithesis.
being just).
- However, how can we achieve a clear 2. The Pragmatic Method
understanding of words? We can achieve this - Hundreds of years after the death of
by an act of “disciplined conversation” Socrates, a new philosophy emerged as
which Socrates compared to an intellectual inspired by the idea of change initiated by the
midwife. Socrates called this method evolutionary thoughts of Hegel and Darvin in
dialectic. The method appears simple but 19 century America. This philosophy became
anyone subjected by Socrates to this method known as pragmatism. It was started by
eventually felt its intense rigor. Charles S. Pierce (1839-1914), popularized
- The method starts with eliciting the definition by Wiliam James (1842-1910) and
of a certain word from a person who appears institutionalized in American culture by John
to be familiar (or “pretends” to be familiar) Dewey (1859-1952)
with its meaning. Socrates then points out the - According to the pragmatists, philosophy
imperfections of the understanding of the seems to offer a set of beliefs about human
person through a series of questions. What
 beings and his relationship to the world. thinking self is "one's immediate
Pragmatists offer no such beliefs. Rather, experience."
they seek to make philosophy relevant by - Husserl's main purpose was to build a
solving real life problems. It is purely a philosophy free from any biases of
philosophy of method and not of substance. preconceived ideas. One can only do this if
- What pragmatism aims is to test the dogma one returns to immediate experience.
of science, religion and philosophy by Husserl said that he was only looking to
determining their practical results. The "things and facts themselves, as these are
pragmatic test is: if I practice this belief, will it given in actual experience and intuition". This
bring success or failure? Will I solve problems experience is not the objective world of
or create problems? Successful experience is science separate from us, but the world as it
the verification process of truth for the appears to us or (borrowing the term of the
pragmatists (Stumpf 2008). 18th century German philosopher Immanuel
Kant) the phenomenal world - hence, the
3. The Phenomenological Method term phenomenology.
- The phenomenological method was - However, our beliefs about human beings and
conceived by Edmund Husserl (born in the world prevent us from seeing clearly this
1859), one of the greatest intellects of the immediate experience which he calls "pure
19th century. His ideas and method subjectivity". Thus, to know the truth, we have
influenced the thoughts of some of the 20th to put aside one by one all our limiting beliefs
century philosophical giants: Martin about the world which represents our biases.
Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Husserl calls this process phenomenological
Merleau-Ponty among others. epoche (epoche is the Greek word for
- What prompted Husserl to develop bracketing). Bracketing is not ignoring. It is an
phenomenology? To answer this, we have to act of stepping back at our biases and
look back at Husserl’s time and place: the prejudices to make sure that they do not
19th century Europe. At that time, JOHN influence the way we think. Only facts
DEWEY EDMUND HUSSERL 15 science was provided by immediate experience must
on the ascendancy prompted by the great influence us.
discoveries of Galileo, Newton, and Darwin
among others. Husserl himself was 4. Existentialism
impressed by the achievements of science. - Another influential intellectual movement
Unfortunately, according to Husserl, science which had its roots in the 19th century ideas
brings a certain attitude which is of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and
counterproductive to the human soul: the Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was
naturalistic attitude (or simply naturalism) existentialism.
- Naturalism in this context is the idea that - Kierkegaard's ideas were in part a reaction
everything can be explained in terms of against the overly ambitious system building
matter or the physical. Since man is not only the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
physical (i.e. body) but also spiritual, this Hegel (1770-1831).
naturalistic attitude brings a distorted view of - On the other hand, Nietzsche's ideas were a
man by banishing the spiritual from the world reaction against the religious and rational
which includes the banishment of ideas, value system still prevalent in 19th century
values, and cultures (Husserl, 1965). Europe (Stumpf 2008). While Kierkegaard
- To counter the naturalistic tendency, Husserl was religious and Nietzsche was atheistic
returned to the idea of the thinking self which (atheism is the denial of the supernatural),
was given preeminence by the 17th century they both grounded their philosophy on the
French philosopher, Rene Descartes. More personal choices of the individual which
specifically, the layman's term given to the
 becomes one of the important tenets of
existentialism.
- In the 20th century, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-
1980) and his partner, Simone de Beauvoir
(1908-1986) popularized atheistic
existentialism while Gabriel Marcel (1889-
1973) and Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
promoted religious existentialism. Religious
existentialists saw certain parallels between
existential ideas and religious themes like the
fall of Adam and Eve which can be compared
to the theme of inauthentic existence in
existentialist philosophy (Stumpf 2008). After
that brief overview on existentialism, let us
focus our attention on one existentialist
method identified by Gabriel Marcel: the
primary/secondary reflection.

5. The Analytic Method

- As quoted by Stumpf, Wittgenstein said that
‘the object of philosophy is the logical
clarification of thought’ so that ‘the result of
philosophy is not a number of philosophical
propositions, but to LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
make propositions clear”. Analytic
philosophers employed various methods of
linguistic analysis such as the principle of
verification and logical analysis (Rudolf
Carnap).
- What Wittgenstein wants is to analyze
language in the way actual people used it
ordinary situations and not to construct an
ideal language based on logic and
mathematics like what Russell seems to be
doing.
- To analyze language, we have to realize that it
follows rules. If there are rules in every aspect
of life, there are certainly rules on how we put
together and communicate words.
Wittgenstein believed that these rules are like
the rules of games (Wittgenstein 1968)-
language games. For example, the usage of
words like "demand", "supply", "money",
"price" in the context of economics differ
from its usage in everyday life. These are
technical words and they follow certain rules
(i.e. the language game) within that discipline
that affects the way these words are used.