Sabarillo, Jerwen M.
January 24,
2025 BSMT 1 BRAVO
NGEC 10 - SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPY
Ten Commandments of Philosophy
1. Allow the spirit of wonder to flourish in your breast.
Philosophy begins with deep wonder about the universe and questions about
who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. What is this life
all about? Speculate and explore different points of view and worldviews. Do
not stifle childlike curiosity.
2. Doubt everything unsupported by evidence until the evidence
convinces you of its truth
Be reasonably cautious, a moderate skeptic, suspicious of those who claim to
have the truth. Doubt is the soul’s purgative process. Do not fear intellectual
inquiry. As Johann Goethe(1749-1832) said, “The masses fear the
intellectuals, but it is stupidity that they should fear, if they only realized how
dangerous it really is.”
3. Love the truth.
“Philosophy is the eternal search for truth, a search which
inevitably fails and yet is never defeated; which continually eludes us, but
which always guides us. This free intellectual life of the mind is the noblest
inheritance of the Western world; it is also the hope of our future”
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4. Divide and conquer.
Divide each problem and theory into its smallest essential components in
order to analyze each unit carefully. This is the analytic method.
5. Collect and construct.
Build a coherent argument or theory from component parts. One should move
from the simple, secure foundations to the complex and comprehensive. As
mentioned previously, Russell once said that the aim of philosophical
argument was to move from simple propositions so obvious that no one would
think of doubting them via a method of valid argument to conclusions so
preposterous that no one could help but doubt them. The important thing is to
have a coherent, well-founded, tightly reasoned set of beliefs that can
withstand the opposition.
6. Conjecture and refute.
Make a complete survey of possible objections to your position, looking for
counterexamples and subtle mistakes. Following a suggestion of Karl Popper,
philosophy is a system of conjecture and refutation. Seek bold hypotheses
and seek disconfirmations of your favorite positions. In this way, by a process
of elimination, you will negatively and indirectly and gradually approach the
Truth. In this regard, seek to understand your opponent’s position, for as John
Stuart Mill wrote, “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of
that. If
he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not
so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either
opinion.” Mill further urges us to face squarely the best arguments our
opponent can muster, for until we have met those argument, we can never be
sure that our position is superior. The truth seeker “must know (the
opponent’s arguments) in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must
feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to
encounter and dispose of, else he will never really possess himself of the
portion of the truth which meets and removes that difficulty.”
7. Revise and rebuild.
Be willing to revise, reject, and modify your beliefs and the degree with which
you hold any belief. Acknowledge that you probably have many false beliefs
and be grateful to those who correct you. This is the principle of fallibilism,
the thesis that we are very likely incorrect in many of our beliefs and have a
tendency toward self-deception when considering objections to our position.
8. Seek simplicity
This is the principle of parsimony, sometimes known as
Occam’s Razor. Prefer the simple explanation to the mor
e complex, all things being equal.
9. Live the Truth
Appropriate your ideas in a personal way, so that even as the objective truth
is a correspondence of the thought of the world, this lived truth will be a
correspondence of the life of the thought. As Kier kegaard said, “Here is a
definition of (subjective) truth: holding fast to an objective uncertainty in an
appropriation process of the most passionate inwardness is the truth, the
highest available for an existing individual.”
10. Live the Good
Let the practical conclusions of a philosophical reflection on the moral life inspire and
motivate you to action. Let moral Truth transform your life so that you shine like a
jewel glowing in its own light amidst the darkness of ignorance.