Practicing Inquiry & Working with Arguments and Principles

Human beings think all the time. But is all that thinking necessarily philosophizing? Probably not. Human beings think in lots of different ways and for different purposes.

The work of philosophy is grounded in inquiry, asking questions, and searching after answers through reason, contemplation, experimentation, experience, and dialogue with others.

Along the way philosophers make claims and test them. Philosophers consider counterclaims and weigh evidence. They engage in dialogue and argument (the rhetorical kind). Philosophers assert principles.

Yet they also sort through intuition, and draw from history and experience, or from a body of knowledge often referred to as "common sense."