D.

ANALYTIC TRADITION
CHAPTER 3: METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING Can language objectively describe truth?
For philosophers-NO; language is socially conditioned.
 Facts and Opinions We understand the world solely in terms of our language
A fact is a specific detail that can be proven as true based on games—that is our linguistics, social constructs.
objective evidence.
An opinion is a feeling, judgment, belief, or conclusion that E. LOGIC AND CRITICAL THINKING: TOOL OF REASONING
cannot be proven true by objective evidence. Logic is centered in the analysis and construction of
arguments.
In general there are two basic types of reasoning:
Philosophizing – to think or express oneself in a philosophical 1. Inductive reasoning: based from observations in order to
Manner make generalization.
- the practice of talking or thinking about important subjects This reasoning is often applied in prediction,
imprecisely or boringly, sometimes instead of doing forecasting or behavior
something practical 2. Deductive reasoning: draws conclusion from usually
- one broad judgment or definition and one more
A. PHENOMENOLOGY: ON CONSCIOUSNESS specific assertion.
Edmund Husserl – founder of phenomenology
F. FALLACIES
The Phenomenological Approach
fal·la·cy - mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound
( The Philosophy of Essence)
argument.
Focuses on careful inspection and description on
1. APPEAL TO PITY (ARGUMENTUM AD MISERICORDIAM)
phenomena or appearances, defined as any
An arguer attempts to evoke feelings of pity or
object of conscious experience , that is, that
compassion, when such feelings are not logically
which we are conscious of.
relevant to the arguer’s conclusion.
Phenomenology according to Husserl is a method for finding
2. APPEAL TO IGNORANCE (ARGUMENTUM AD
and guaranteeing the truth IGNORANTIAM)
Whatever has not been proved false must be true and
Phenomenon- greek word “phainómenon meaning vice versa
appearance.Immanuel Kant, German philosopher used the 3. EQUIVOCATION
same word to refer to the world of our experience. A key word is used in two or more senses in the same
In ideas: argument and the apparent success of the argument
Natural world- our ordinary everyday viewpoint and depends on the shift in meaning.
the ordinary stance of the natural sciences, describing things **logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word
several times, but giving particular word a different
and states of affairs
meaning each time.
Phenomenological Standpoint- focus not on things 4. COMPOSITION/DIVISION
but our consciousness of things. Assuming that what is true about one part of
something has to be applied to all, or other parts of it.
B. EXISTENTIALISM: ON FREEDOM 5. AGAINST THE PERSON (ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM)
The Existential Approach: (The Search for the Meaning of Life) Rejects someone’s argument or claim by attacking the
rather than the person’s argument or claim.
Existentialism- derived from the word existence meaning to a) X is a bad person.
stand out , to emerge or to come out from b) Therefore, X’s argument must be bad.
*** it is a philosophy of man as a living individual. 6. APPEAL TO FORCE (ARGUMENTUM AD BACULUM)
Man is condemned to be free. An arguer threatens harm to the reader / listener and
- for existentialist, there is no escape from freedom; we make this threat is irrelevant to the truth of the arguer’s
decisions but sometimes we “choose not to choose” conclusion.
7. APPEAL TO PEOPLE (ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM)
C. POSTMODERNISM: ON CULTURES An Argument that appeals or exploits people’s vanities,
The Post Modern Approach (The Absence of a Center and the desire for esteem, and anchoring on popularity
Loss of Meaning ) Example:
A: I will pray online
The faces of facebook are the faces of postmodernity. It can B: Why not go to church?
unravel the characteristics of postmodernity in 3 different C: Who will “tag” my prayer there?
perspectives:
a. Instantaneity and interactivity 8. FALSE CAUSE (POST HOC)
**whatever is “here and now”, whatever brings instant
entertainment and promises that one will “feel good” Presuming that a real or perceived relationship
*what makes facebook attractive is that it is between things means that one is the cause of the
interactive and instantaneous other
Ex. When you post a photo, in no time you get a reaction
9. HASTY GENERALIZATION
b. Hyperreality : a condition in which what is real and what is
One commits error if one reaches an inductive
fiction are blended together so that there is no clear
generalization based on insufficient evidence.
distinction between where one ends and the other begins
The fallacy is commonly based on a broad
Hyperreality is using a pseudo-world to enable people to be
conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a
the characters they wish to be.
small group that fails to sufficiently represent the
c. Fluidity – postmodernity is “liquid modernity”
whole population
Fluid: travel easily, flow, spill, pour over, flood, leak- they pass
around some obstacles, dissolve some others and soak their 10. BEGGING THE QUESTION (PETITIO PRINCIPII)
way through others
Facebook: people have fluid identities. They experiment their This is a type of fallacy in which the proposition to
be proven is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the
identities. They change profile pic every week. Some have two
premise
or three accounts, change their names, manipulate their
information such as school, jobs, status, address etc.