Week2 Methods of Philosophizing

METHODS OF
PHILOSOPHIZING
4 Major Philosophical Methods
1. Socratic Method
2. Phenomenological Method
3. Hermeneutical Method
4. Analytic Method
Socrates (470–399 BCE) was
a Greek philosopher from
Athens who is credited as
the founder of Western
philosophy and among the
first moral philosophers of
the ethical tradition of
thought.
1. Socratic Method / Elenchus
It is form of argumentative dialogue between
individuals, based on asking and answering
questions. It is named after the Classical Greek
philosopher Socrates. The method aims to help
participants develop their understanding by
searching for general commonly held truths that
shape beliefs and scrutinizing them to determine
their consistency with other beliefs.
The basic form involves a series of questions
formulated as tests of logic and fact, intended
to help a person or group discover their beliefs
about a topic, explore definitions, and
characterize general characteristics shared by
various particular instances. According to this
method a point or answer is reached and
considered truth when everybody in the
classroom agrees about something essential
about a certain topic and can not prove it to
be otherwise.
Essential Components of the
Socratic Method
1. The Socratic Method uses questions to examine the
values , principles , and beliefs of students.
2. This method focuses on moral education on how one
ought to live or must act.
3. It demands a classroom environment characterized by
“productive discomfort.”
4. Socratic Method is better used to demonstrate
complexity, difficulty and uncertainty than at eliciting
facts about the world.
Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy that
is concerned with the study of subjective
experience and consciousness. It is based on
the idea that the essence of things can only be
understood through the way they appear to us
in experience, rather than by analyzing their
objective properties or functions.
Phenomenology is a philosophical movement that
began in the early 20th century, primarily in Germany. It
was founded by Edmund Husserl, a German philosopher
who is often considered the father of phenomenology.
Other philosophers, such as Martin Heidegger and Jean-
Paul Sartre, built on Husserl’s work and developed their
own versions of phenomenology. Heidegger, in
particular, emphasized the importance of language
and the role it plays in shaping our understanding of the
world, while Sartre focused on the relationship between
consciousness and freedom.
Intentionality in Phenomenology
“Intentionality” which is the term that anchors the
doctrine of phenomenology implies that every act of
consciousness we have is intentional., that is , it is
essentially “consciousness of” or an “experience of
something or other. Intentionality is the key to unlock
imprisonment of the mind.
Egocentric predicament, a term coined by Ralph Barton

Perry in an article, is the problem of not being able to
view reality outside of our own perceptions.
Phenomenology of Perception
This type of phenomenology, developed by Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, emphasizes the embodied and lived
nature of perception, arguing that perception is not
simply a matter of passive reception (acceptance
without questioning) but is instead an active and
dynamic process of engagement with the world. It
also uses the other senses such as visual, auditory,
gustatory, olfactory, and tactile perceptions.
The Phenomenological Reduction
It is a technique used to strip away all abstraction,
theorizing, and generalization. The technique has
two moments: epoché and the reduction proper.
Epoche is the first moment of the reduction, which
involves abstention from making judgments about
the existence of the world. The second moment is
the reduction proper, which involves inquiring back
into consciousness.
3. Hermeneutical Method
The term hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word
ἑρμηνεύω (hermēneuō) “translate, interpret.”
Hermeneutics is a philosophical discipline concerned
with analyzing the conditions for understanding. It is
the theory and methodology of interpretation text and
symbols, an art of understanding and of making
oneself understood, and requires art rather than rule-
governed science.
Hermeneutics has been broadly applied in the
humanities, especially in law, history, and theology. It is
the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation,
especially of the Bible or literary texts.
Exegesis seeks to understand the text’s original meaning

by considering its historical, cultural, linguistic, and literary
context.
Eisegesis reads into the text one’s own ideas, beliefs, or
biases, often leading to skewed or biased interpretations.
4. Analytic Philosophical Method
Analytical method of philosophy is a method of

inquiry in which one seeks to assess complex
systems of thought by ‘analyzing’ them into simpler
elements whose relationships are thereby brought
into focus by mainly dealing with language.
Analytic Philosophy is a 20th Century movement in
philosophy which holds that philosophy should
apply logical techniques in order to attain
conceptual clarity, and that philosophy should be
consistent with the success of modern science.
According to Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Language is
socially conditioned; we understand the world solely in
terms of a language games – that is, our linguistics
social construct. Truth, as we perceived it, is itself
socially constructed.”
Understanding the meanings of varied statements with
the use of language will enable you to devise a way to
shield you from harmful effects of those toxic and
negative options which are usually subjective.
TASKS TO DO:
1. Open your book on page 65 and answer
Exercise Part I.
Determine what philosophical method is
involved in each of the cases below. Write
PHENOMENOLOGY if it is phenomenological
method, ELENCHUS if Socratic Method,
HERMENEUTIC if hermeneutic and ANALYSIS if
analytic philosophical method.
2. Group yourselves into 4 and make a 4
minutes skit on how different philosophical
methods are being shown in our daily living.
1 – Socratic Method
2 – Phenomenological Method
3 – Hermeneutic Method
4 – Analytic Method

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METHODS OF

Egocentric predicament, a term coined by Ralph Barton

Exegesis seeks to understand the text’s original meaning

Analytical method of philosophy is a method of

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