Your own personal list of methods
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Somewhere in your notes, you should keep a list called "My own personal list of philosophical methods," (or, whatever you want to call it). That list isn't just a repetition of the official list or the many "notes on method" that get thrown out in class. It should reflect methods that really stand out to you and which you particularly value.
So, based on this semester's teaching, here's my own personal list:
Spring 2010 methods list
1. Philosophy seems to involve making lots of lists of things, like the way we use words, or examples of things that would fit under a concept or be exceptions to it. I guess this is part of "Carefully looking at Phenomena" on the official list.
2. Rationales, arguments, explanations. Need to start noticing those again. Example: Euthyphro 10, Apology, every day in class.
3. Finding a principle at work in making a distinction. Example from first day, distinguishing kinds of reality using a principle about relative "independence" of a thing.
4. Looking for an essential definition, what you would need to know to identify a thing in terms of its intrinsic reality. (Consider examples from lecture on Platonic metaphysics.)
5. Looking for implications that follow from initial claims. For example, if love is one thing, as essentially good, what follows? What needs explaining or more argumentation if we take this starting point.
Related Docs
- Go to Philosophical Methods
