Chapter II :
Methods of Philosophizing
Learning Objectives :
After going through this module, you are expected to:
Specific objectives:
[Link] opinion from
truth; 1. identify the meaning, importance,
and source of knowledge.
2. realize that the methods of
2. describe, the steps/processes of
philosophy lead to wisdom
acquiring knowledge.
and truth
3. explain how validating one’s
knowledge leads to truth.
4. compare/contrast different theories
of truth.
What branch of philosophy that deals with the study
of knowledge which investigates the origin,
structure, methods, and integrity of knowledge?
LESSON I :
KNOWLEDGE AND
TRUTH
According to philosophy if you want to know the truth
you have to use, not emotions, but thinking. To think
however is an act of choice which is not always done
properly. Sometimes we need guidance to straighten
our thoughts.
EPISTEMOLOGY
Ayn Rand (1990) define epistemology as a science
that devoted to the discovery of the proper method of
acquiring and validating knowledge.
The purpose of epistemology :
1. To show how we can 2. To give us a method of
acquire knowledge. demonstrating whether the
knowledge we acquired is
really knowledge (i.e., true).
THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE
According to Ayn Rand (1990),
knowledge is a “mental grasp of reality
reached either by perceptual observation or
by a process of reason based on
perceptual observation”
The Nature of Knowledge:
Knowledge is the clear awareness and
understanding of something .
● It is provided by facts
● It is based on reality
● It is observable and evident to the real world.
Knowledge is a retained form of
awareness (Binswanger 2014).
How do we acquire knowledge?
Rand’s definition gives us two ways:
First, we can acquire knowledge using our senses: seeing,
hearing, tasting, feeling, smelling.
This method of acquiring knowledge is called empiricism and it
has many adherents in the history of philosophy such as John
Locke, George Berkley, David Hume.
How do we acquire knowledge?
Rand’s definition gives us two ways:
Second, we can acquire knowledge by thinking with the use of
our minds (what philosophers call the rational faculty). This is
what rationalism advocates. (Some well-known rationalists in
history are Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz).
The Rationalists (from left to right) Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz
However thinking is just half of the story of knowing (in fact the
second half). The reason is that thinking involves content. To think is
to think of something. You cannot think about nothing. This is where
sense perception enters the picture by feeding our minds with data
coming from the outside world so that we can have something to think
about.
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
1. Reality
To know is to know something. This “something” is what philosophers
call reality, existence, being. Let us employ the term existence.
Existence is everything there is (another name for it is the Universe
[Peikoff 1990]). It includes everything we perceive (animals, plants,
human beings, inanimate objects) and everything inside our heads (e.g.,
our thoughts and emotions) which represents our inner world.
Existence is really all there is to know. If nothing exists knowledge is
impossible.
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
[Link]
Our first and only contact with reality is through our senses. Knowledge begins
with perceptual knowledge. At first the senses give us knowledge of things or
entities (what Aristotle calls primary substance): dog, cat, chair, table, man.
Later we became aware not only of things but certain aspects of things like
qualities (blue, hard, smooth), quantities (seven inches or six pounds),
relationships (in front of, son of) even actions (jumping, running, flying). These
so called Aristotelian categories cannot be separated from the entities that have
it. Red for example cannot be separated from red objects; walking cannot be
separated from the person that walks, etc.
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
3. Concept
After we perceive things we began to notice that some of the things we
perceive are similar to other things.
A concept which according to one dictionary means “an abstract or
generic idea generalized from particular instances” (Merriam-Webster
Dictionary)
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
3. Concept
Two types of abstraction from abstractions:
• wider generalizations (or simply widenings) and
• subdivisions (or narrowings) (Binswanger 2014):
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
3. Concept
Two types of abstraction from abstractions:
• Wider Generalizations (or simply widenings) is the process of forming wider
and wider concepts.
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
3. Concept
Two types of abstraction from abstractions:
• Subdivisions consist of identifying finer and finer distinctions.
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
4. Proposition
When we use concepts in order to classify or describe an “existent” (a
particular that exist be it an object, a person, an action or event, etc) (Rand
1990) we use what philosophers call a proposition (Binswanger 2014). A
proposition is a statement that expresses either an assertion or a denial
(Copi, 2002) that an existent belongs to a class or possess certain attribute.
Facts – propositions or statements observed to be
real and truthful.
Claim – proposition that requires further
examination ; can be contested
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
5. Inference
How do we demonstrate that the statement is true? By providing an
argument. According to Hurley an argument “is a group of statements,
one or more of which (the premises) are claimed to provide support for, or
reason to believe one of the others (the conclusion) (Hurley 2011). To
clarify this definition let’s give an example using the famous Socratic
argument:
All men are mortals Socrates is a man.
Therefore Socrates is mortal.
PROCESS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
5. Inference
An argument expresses a reasoning process which logicians call
inference (Hurley 2011). Arguments however is not the only form of
inference but logicians usually used “argument” and “inference”
interchangeably.