Logic Review
What is Philosophy?
- Definition 1
- Philosophy is thinking about thinking
- reflective thought about the world and the big questions
- rationally critical thinking
- Definition 2
- The love of wisdom
- critical examination of the way we perceive the world to make ourselves better and wiser
- Definition 3
- Critical and creative thinking about ::fundamental questions about life
- Aim is to clarify issues and if, possible find answers to them
The Value of Philosophy (Russell Article)
- Philosophy must be learned :: so that our minds can be trained to think deeply
- many don’t critically think and just follow other people’s ideas
- diminish our ability to be dogmatic
- Dogmatic: believing that your opinions are right and not looking at other perspectives or evidence
Criteria for Judging and Argument
- Relevance
- are the arguments worth considering?
- are the arguments on topic or related
- relevant and irrelevant
- Empirical Value
- Verified through senses and research
- Non-empirical are things that are opinions, things we can’t see
- Bias
- Favoring certain things
- Coming from our childhood, experiences and life
- Hard to know when we or others are using bias
- Be aware
- Reliability
- Reliability of the person giving info
- Does that person have something to gain from me?
- Examine credentials