Division of City Schools

COMMONWEALTH HIGH SCHOOL

Ecols St. Brgy. Commonwealth,
Quezon City

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

First Semester – SY 2020 – 2021

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

WEEK NO. 6 WORKSHEET NO. 5 QUARTER First Quarter

TOPIC TRUTH AND OPINION

CONTENT STANDARD The learner understands the meaning and process of doing philosophy
PERFORMANCE STANDARD The learner reflects on a concrete experience in a philosophical way
LEARNING COMPETENCY The learners will be able to:
1. Distinguish opinion from truth
2. Analyze situations that show the difference between opinion and truth and
3. Evaluate opinions through methods of philosophy.

ACTIVITY 1:

Read an online news article on a current controversial issue. Turn to the comment section below the article, and describe the
interaction among the commenters and the kind of comments they post online.

Focus on two or more commenters who are actively exchanging arguments and counter-arguments.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Looking at the issues suggested now you may answer the following questions in the space
provided.

1. Are the arguments reasonable to you?

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2. Do you agree with these arguments?

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3. Do you think some arguments are downright foolish or simply wrong?

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 4. What is your criterion for saying that their arguments or issues are good and that arguments are bad?
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READING: Truth and Opinion

An opinion is a statement of Judgement of a person about something in the world in need of further justification. On the other hand,
opinions are a statement of a judgment of a person about something in the world or reality as it appears to us, which is further divided
into belief and illusion. Between the two types of opinion, eikasia or illusion, or imagination is considered the lower type in Plato’s
Allegory of the Cave. However, the judgment does not take them immediately as true. It should always critically examine the opinion
and its supporting arguments. It should also be wary of strongly put arguments but deep introspection is actually fallacious. To be able
to hold credence, opinions should pass further justification.

An Argument is a group of statements that serve to support a conclusion.

Ex. “ There is no hope in the Philippine government”. This is not yet an argument. It is an expression of an opinion. If the person wants
to convince another person that his opinion is true. Then he must provide reasons to support this claim. So an Argument would be like
this.

1.“There is no hope in the Philippine government because many officials are corrupt, and Filipino voters continue to elect them.” It is
clearly stated that two statements (reasons) become supporting evidence by a person who claims in this argument.
Another similar idea, all Oranges are fruits. All fruits grow on trees. Therefore, all Oranges grow on trees.
In this field or discipline of study, it refers to Logic, as a branch of philosophy dealing with right thinking/ reasoning or good
argumentation.

Now, we know at least from genuine to fake argument and we call it a fallacy because it fails to support the conclusion. In like this new
scenario, this no hope in the Philippine government, because the Philippines is a tropical country. Here, it comes that the supporting
evidence is not genuine and it becomes a fallacy.

What is a fallacy? It is a group of statements that appear to be arguments, but it fails to support the conclusion. On the other hand, it is
a defect in an argument other than its having also a false premise.

The common description of fallacy is a distortion of the truth:

1. Appeal to Pity (argumentum ad misericordiam)
It is a specific kind to appeal to emotion in which someone tries to win support for an argument o idea by exploiting his or her
opponent’s feeling of pity or guilt.
2. Appeal to Ignorance (argumentum ad Ignorantiam)
Whatever has not been proved false must be true, and vice versa.
3. Equivocation - this is a logical chain of reasoning of a term or a word several times but giving the particular word a different
meaning each time. Example: Human beings have hands, the clock has a hand, he is drinking from the pitcher of water, he is
a baseball pitcher
4. Composition - this infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of the whole. The reverse of this
fallacy is a division
5. Division - one reason logically states that if something or some of the parts is true, then it must also be true for all.
6. Against the Person (argumentum ad hominem) - this fallacy attempts to link the validity of a premise to the characteristics or
beliefs of the person advocating the premise. However, in some instances, a quest for personal conduct, character, motives,
etc., is legitimate if relevant to the issue.
7. Appeal to Force (Argumentum ad baculum)- a judgment where force, coercion, or the threat of force, is given as a
justification for a conclusion.
8. Appeal to the People (Argumentum ad populum)- An argument that appeals to or exploits people’s vanities, desire for
esteem, and anchoring on popularity.
9. False cause (post hoc)-Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one. This fallacy is also
referred to as coincidental correlation, or correlation not causation.
 10. Hasty Generalization - one commits an error if someone reaches an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence.
This fallacy is commonly based on a broad conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a small group that fails to sufficiently
represent the whole population.
11. Begging the Question (petitio principii) -This is a type of fallacy in which the proposition to be proven is assumed implicitly or
explicitly in the premise

ACTIVITY 2:

1. List down 2 examples of comments for each fallacy discussed: ad hominem, ad baculum, ad misericordiam, ad populum. You
can get examples from other online news article comment sections. Then, which of the 4 fallacious is the most common?
Rank them.
2. Compare the statements written in the news section of a newspaper to the statements written in the editorial or opinion
section. What are some indicators in the statements of opinion writing that show that they are simply expressing their opinion?
What are some indicators in the news item statements that clearly show that they are not simply stating opinions but facts?
3. “Imposing dress codes in school is a restriction of freedom? - Is this an expression of opinion or a statement of fact? Will your
answer to this question change if you learn that the person who stated this is an intelligent philosopher? Why do you say so?

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:

1. Identify and differentiate for the following (4) fallacious :

a. Argumentum ad Hominen (argument against the person)

b. Argumentum ad Baculum (appeal to force)

c. .Argumentum ad Misericordiam ( appeal to pity)

d. Argumentum Ad Populum (Bandwagon Fallacy)

2. Check out other fallacious are commonly used today

JOURNAL ENTRY:

Cite detailed examples of how fallacies are used in daily life. For example, when you watch advertisements based on the popularity of
endorsers, do you tend to buy their product? Did you use the fallacies of ad misericordiam or ad hominem toward others? How?

Prepared by: Checked by: Approved by:

TEACHERS IN PHILOSOPHY MRS. LORELINA G. MORERA DR. AGAPITO T. LERA

Humanities and Social Sciences OIC Assistant Principal Principal IV