THE METHODS OF
PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy as:
• Speculations/ Speculative thinking
• Critical thinking /Analysis
• Reflective Inquiry
PHILOSOPHY as
Speculations/
Speculative Thinking
SPECULATION
“judge” or “analyze”
Philosophy as critical thinking…
• Questions, Judges and Evaluates any and
all principles and premises that may be
gained through speculation.
Clarity
of knowledge
validity
of insights
Modes of Critical Analysis
LOGICAL LINGUISTIC
LOGICAL
• Philosophical problems are solved through a
careful analysis of the logical structure of the
philosophical assertions.
• A statement is reduced into its simplest form
“elementary sentence”
LINGUISTIC
• Meanings of words are analyzed for their
clarity and consistency.
• It requires a clear definition of words to avoid
ambiguity or vagueness and therefore ensure
clarity of claims.
Plato defined man thus:
“Man is a two-footed, featherless animal,”
and was much praised for the definition;
so Diogenes plucked and a cock brought it
into his school an said “This is Plato’s
man. “On which account this addition was
made to the definition, “With broad flat
nails.”
-Laertius, 1895
Man is a two-footed, featherless animal.
CONSISTENCY
with the
Man is a two-footed, featherless animal.
Meaning-
Making
REFLECTIVE THINKING
A process that moves a learner from
one experience into the next with a
deeper understanding of its
relationship with connections to
other experiences and ideas.
6 Phases of reflective inquiry
The Experience
Spontaneous Interpretation of the
experience
Naming the problems or questions
which arise
Generating possible explanations
Ramifying the explanations into full
blown hypothesis
Experimenting the hypothesis