how to do philosophy
OP - November 05, 2011, 11:17 AM
This is not directed towards anyone, but I feel that some people don't know what philosophy is or how to do it. This is my take, based on personal experience as well as formal training as a philosophy student:
The most important thing when it comes to philosophy is to remember that it's not debating, it's discussing. You have to suspend your beliefs and take the argument for what it is. You have to dissociate yourself from the beliefs you hold. It's not personal, and you don't enter it with the intention to win, you enter it with the intention to gain knowledge. I'd actually rather have my argument invalidated and change my beliefs rather than "win". But to do that I do everything I can to defend my position so that I can be fairly certain that the other standpoint is valid. Essentially I become a litmus test for the other argument. That's why I only enter discussions with people I think might change my beliefs, hence I don't discuss things with creationists, for example. I know our views are so far apart that there would be no reconciliation, and I would gain absolutely nothing from the discussion. I don't enter discussions to pat myself on the back and prove myself right, although it definitely renews my own beliefs if the other person's beliefs don't stand up to the test.
If someone tried to argue something without backing it up, I feel that it's not worthy, because that person would have neither questioned my beliefs nor reinforced them, therefore leaving me with absolutely nothing new. My knowledge becomes stagnant and I leave the discussion in the exact same state as I entered it. If you don't want to challenge your beliefs, don't enter into a discussion.
When you suspend your beliefs, the first thing you have to do is read/hear the other person's argument without interrupting and without making any judgments whatsoever. The argument might sound as looney as possible, just absolutely fucking ridiculous and you just want to shit your pants laughing at it, but you have to prevent yourself from doing it at all costs. When you engage with the other person's argument, you have to see whether or not it's logically coherent. This has nothing yet to do with whether it's correct or not, simply whether the conclusion follows from the arguments, which follow from the premise. Which means of course you have to first identify those. If the argument is not logically coherent, show how it's not. If it is, see if the premise, i.e. hypothesis, is true or not. If you think it's wrong, show why it is. If you can't, then there must have been something wrong with your previous beliefs, and you need to revise them.
PS: I do not claim to always do this. A philosophy student has to consciously remember the method of doing philosophy and practice it as much as possible for it to become second nature.
Topic: how to do philosophy