Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

2.1 WHAT ARE METHODS OF PHILOSOPHIZING

I. What will you learn from this module?

After studying this module, you will be able to:

-distinguish opinion from truth;

-realize that the methods of philosophy lead to wisdom and truth; and
-evaluate truth from opinion in different situations using the methods of
philosophizing.

II. Let’s Check What You Already Know

ACTIVITY:

Can you distinguish truth from opinion? Try sorting the given statements into
truth and opinion.

1. The library in USC-TC is 10 minutes walk from the dormitory located inside the
campus.
2. Living inside the campus is an advantage because it is convenient and students
avoid getting late for their classes.
3. Shirley helps her classmates through peer tutoring in Math.
4. The best in Math in class is Shirley since her classmates always ask her for help
with their assignments in the subject.
5. A boy slapped one of his female classmates during a class activity.
6. The violent behavior of the boy showed the kind of environment he grew up in.

Then answer the following questions briefly.

Questions:
1. What is the general nature of opinion?
2. What is the general nature of truth?
3. What are the reasons why you think there may be confusion between the two for
humans?

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

III. Let´s Explore

I. The Traditional Branches of Philosophy

The branches or sub-disciplines of Philosophy

Study of
Metaphysics:
Being/being/reality/who What is B/being?
Cosmology, Theodicy
and what is God
Epistemology Study of knowledge What can I know?

Ethics/Value Theory Study of action What ought I do?

Aesthetics Study of beauty/art What is beauty?

Politics Study of power What makes a just society?

Study of
Logic What is correct inference?
inference/argument

Studying Philosophy:

1. We can study by dividing and/or progressing the study into different

timelines: Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary which is called the
historical or chronological approach.

2. We can also study philosophy by what is called the non-historical thematic

approach, i.e. studying the different branches of philosophy without
referencing a time period.

Categorizing philosophical thought:

3. According to the discipline or field it philosophizes, e.g., Philosophy of

Mathematics, Philosophy of Language, and Philosophy of History.

4. According to the systematic body of (a) thought of a particular philosopher,

e.g., Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Marxism.

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

5. According to a particular school of thought (non-name-isms), e.g., Empiricism,

Rationalism, Pragmatism, and Existentialism.

6. According to specialized philosophical fields but are non-isms, e.g.,

Hermeneutics and Phenomenology.

7. Current Philosophic thought (Contemporary Philosophy) is generally divided

into two traditions: Analytic Philosophy and Continental Philosophy.

8. Out of the entire discipline we will focus on five modes of philosophizing which
are the chosen major chronological moments in philosophy that will assist us
in evaluating truth from opinion.

a. Philosophy as knowledge of reality

b. Philosophy as knowledge from doubt and the self
c. Philosophy as an exercise of one’s will to power
d. Philosophy as phenomenology
e. Philosophy as critique

Going forward, our course will focus on the phenomenology and existentialism of
Gabriel Marcel.

Question to Ponder:

Find a philosophical branch or category that you are familiar with. How can it help us
distinguish between opinion and truth?

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

II. Philosophy as Knowledge of Reality

Proponents: Socrates (469-399 BC), Plato (427-347 BC), Aristotle (384-322 BC)

9. Reason or mind goes through certain levels before it reaches the highest form
of knowledge from sensible things to intelligible ones, from mere appearances,
copies of original things beyond this world, to the forms or things-in-
themselves.

10. Doing philosophy requires that we overcome the level of opinion and ascend
towards the level of knowledge through understanding and reason.

11. Empirical (sensory) knowledge, unlike theoretical or speculative knowledge

(or the knowledge of principles and causes), does not lead to wisdom.

12. The practice of philosophy entails guiding reason to go beyond the senses
and discover the principles behind the existence of things.

13. The acceptance of things must be based on the general standard of reason,
i.e., the measure is passing the scrutiny of reason.

Question to Ponder:

What characteristics of everyday experiences on the level of opinions are not enough
for Plato and Aristotle’s Philosophy that lead us to the truth?

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

III. Philosophy as Knowledge from Doubt and the Self

Proponents: Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

14. One must, at least once in his life, doubt everything that can be doubted.

15. Method/steps in attaining knowledge: (cf. Methodic Doubt)

15.1. Accept the truth of the phenomenon based only on the criteria of
clarity and distinctness.

15.2. Simplify the objects of the mind until it reaches in its apprehension
the irreducible parts.

15.3. Guide the mind in its reasoning starting from the simplest and
building on it to proceed to the complex.

15.4. Conduct complete enumeration and review to prevent any object of

inquiry left unexamined.

16. The existence of the self, res cogitans (or thinking self), is the first clear and
distinct knowledge (idea) from which all other things – from God to physical
entities – can be known either by intuition or deduction. (cf. Cogito Ergo
Sum).

17. The conduct of philosophy requires that we subject to doubt everything that
can be doubted, and through the strict use of reasoning, we attain new
knowledge from the perspective of the self, the cogito.

Question to Ponder:

Looking at the reflections of Rene Descartes, what can we say were ‘opinions’ in
Descartes situation? Describe the ‘truth’ he found in his situation.

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

IV. Philosophy As An Exercise Of One's Will To Power

Proponents: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

18. For Nietzsche, philosophy is not capable of grasping the (elusive) truth even
if there were such a thing.

19. There are no objective facts since everything is in flux, changing,

incomprehensible, elusive. What is relatively most enduring (and changing) is
our opinions.

20. The drive towards knowledge of things, our curiosity towards knowing things
merely shows how we try to impose our will on things or phenomena or
assimilate them to our will.

21. Hence “Truth” or “facts” are merely expressions of our will to power. (There is
no truth, only interpretation/s.)

22. To do philosophy entails that we accept that the world around us as

constantly unpredictable.

23. To do philosophy is to find ways in which we can exercise power over our
existence; not deny its dynamism, but to creatively harness our power so
long as we exist.

Question to Ponder:

Hypothetically assume the position of Nietzsche: why are the teachings of one’s
religious community, or one’s state, one’s community or even one’s own self-imposed
values an ‘opinion’? If there is nothing Holy, Good, or True, what then takes Its place?

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

V. Philosophy As Phenomenology

Proponents: Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

24. Summons an alternative way of viewing things or of gaining knowledge about

the world; and, Considers with suspicion our “natural attitude” of gullibly
accepting traditional sources of knowledge, especially the empiricist or
naturalist sources.

25. His philosophy was centered on descriptions of one's immediate

experience rather than explanation which was the core attention of the
intellectuals of that time. He wished for a return to the original experience that
is free of prior prejudices and bias. It was known as a "presuppositionless
philosophy."

26. To return to the original phenomenon (the object experienced through any of
the five senses or mental object experiences we will hereafter call
phenomena) i.e. to "go back to the things themselves," one needs a
particular attitude towards phenomena to begin with.

27. After one has shaken off pre-given designations of phenomena, one then
begins to resist mental classifications in a gamble to see the first, pure
experience before one had rationally classified it.

28. After having experienced that first experience, a.k.a. "the thing itself," one
then turns one's awareness towards his/her self as an available object of
one's consciousness. From there, one can appreciate the unity of
consciousness and, thus, keep seeking the original experience and
understanding it apart from oppressing the object (the object experienced)
from the subject (the self, i.e. the object experiencing objects). This method
assists in the authenticity of our experience, thus adding value to the human
condition.

29. The following are the important steps in doing phenomenology according to
Husserl:

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

29.1. Epoche – „bracketing‟ our natural attitude towards the objects we

are investigating. We temporarily forget the object's properties and
suspend our judgments. This allows us to to see the world with “new eyes”
and to return to the original experience. This makes us aware of our prior
bias. Example: You see a chair, you list it's function, it's necessary
characteristics, materials that could fabricate into a chair, etc. intentionally
remove them from your mind (bracketing).

29.2. Reduction – the procedure of mentally putting ourselves in a

position where we can see things as they really are and independent of
any prejudice. Example: Ask again what you see? Can you describe what
you see anew, can you generate new functions, new characteristics, etc.?

29.3. Eidetic Reduction – arriving at the essence of the experience by

starting out with an individual example, then (free variation) finding out
what changes can be made without it ceasing to be what it is that which I
cannot change making the object cease to be the thing it is, i.e., the
invariant or eidos (Gk. "idea"). Example: What necessary functions can I,
myself, never bracket from it? E.g. "It's sittingness, utilitiness, etc."

29.4. Phenomenological Transcendental Reduction – this reduces the

experience further to the very activity of my consciousness: the I, the very
subject who decides the validity of the object, and, thus re-establishing the
relationship between subject and the object. Example: Consciousness
doesn't happen without something that isn't conscious. Therefore, it
is I that is conscious. We pay attention to our consciousness being
conscious of the phenomenologically reduced chair in front of us. We
secure that notion that anything I am conscious of is established because I
am conscious. There is no world without me and my experiences without a
world is to state nonsense.

30. The main insight of Phenomenology is the intentionality of consciousness,

i.e., consciousness is always consciousness of something, and not
consciousness apart from objects.

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

31. Hence, the phenomenological approach/method asserts that there is no

world without the human person and there is no human person without a
world: consciousness always has an object and an object is so only because
it is the object of consciousness.

Question to Ponder:

Step back and look at yourself in the mirror and go through the steps of
phenomenological reduction and describe what you see at each step. What are the
‘opinions’ you see? What is the ‘truth’ you see with this method?

VI. Philosophy As Critique

Proponents: Michel Focault (1926-1954)

32. Philosophical activity is the critical work that thinking brings to bear on itself.

33. Philosophizing is not a matter of assimilating what others have claimed to be

true or regarded as true. Rather, it entails that we just don't take them to be
true or just assimilate them into our knowledge.

34. To offer a critique does not entail saying negative things about the object
criticized, but consists in seeing on what type of assumptions, of familiar
notions, established, unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are
based.

35. It is about uncovering, showing that things are not obvious as people believe,
making it so that what is taken for granted is no longer taken for granted.

36. To do philosophy is to examine the foundation of what we deem as true than

gullibly absorb them.

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

Question to Ponder:

Take Foucault's method and remember a rumor that went around in your past. If it was
a mere series of opinions, what would lead/have led one to the truth of the matter?

VII. Gabriel Marcel's Phenomenology: Primary and Secondary Reflection

37. From the general philosophical methods to truth we segue our focus here on
out into Phenomenology and Existentialism and towards the philosopher
Gabriel Marcel's application of Phenomenology and his acts of reflection?
That is the next target.

38. What is reflection then? Applying phenomenology to the act of reflection, we

yield what refers to being engaged in thought, daydreaming or
recollecting/remembering an event in our minds. . . pointing to the ideas that
(1) it can never be separated from (human) life, and that (2) “Nobody can
reflect for me.”

39. Reflection is not only about remembering external objects like keys or
cellphones, but also about internal „realities‟ like a memory or a thought one
possesses. According to Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) only the human
being, of all beings, is capable of questioning its very existence.

40. Reflection begins when we encounter a break from our everyday concerns
and from our everyday life; it is a transformed experience.

41. Although (philosophical) reflection presupposes disassociation from

experience in order to appropriate it, reflection must continually return to
the richness of meaning and nourishment drawn from experience.

42. French philosopher Gabriel Marcel speaks of two kinds of reflection:

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

42.1. Primary Reflection breaks the unity of experience and is the

foundation of scientific inquiry; the breaking up (analysis) of experience;
compare to Husserl‟s „natural attitude‟;

42.2. Secondary Reflection unifies (synthesizes) experience; it

recuperates the unity of original experience; it is the instrument of
philosophical reflection.

43. The nature of primary reflection is the dissolution or dissection of the whole
into parts.

44. Philosophical Reflection is interested with Secondary reflection (synthesis),

which is by the way not contrary to Primary Reflection as it just refuses to
accept Primary Reflection as final and definite.

45. Secondary Reflection provides an important aspect in accessing ourselves,

e.g., when we ask the question of (our/my) identity and hope to arrive at an
answer (of this primordial question) not from ready-made responses from
(our/my) identification cards.

46. Secondary Reflection compels us to think of who we really are, who I really
am – the existential fulcrum (existentialism: the practice of phenomenological
descriptions of oneself): MAN.

Question to Ponder:

Perform a primary and secondary reflection on an object around you: why does it lead
you from your previous held opinions to the truth?

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 Philo 01: Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person

USC – SHS North Campus

A. Y. 2021 - 2022

IV. References

Calano, PhD, M. J. T., Pasco, PhD Cand., M. O. D., & Ramoya, PhD Cand., M. C. B.
(2017). Philosophizing and Being Human: A textbook for Senior High School. Sibs
Publishing House, Inc.

Mandane Jr., Orlando Ali M. & Suazo (2016). Thinking Human: A Comprehensive
Worktext in Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person for Senior High School.
University of San Carlos Press.

Stumpf, Samuel Enoch & Fieser J (2008). Socrates to Sartre and Beyond: A History of
Philosophy. Mc Graw Hill, Inc.

Wheeler, Michael, "Martin Heidegger", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall

2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/heidegger/>.

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