An Introduction To Philosophy
By Alan Cooney

What Is Philosophy?

The questions

Does God exist? Do I exist? What is the meaning of life? These are some of the timeless questions that philosophy asks, fundamental to an understanding of what your life means. Some of the most famous men to have ever lived, from Socrates and Plato to Jesus and Muhammad, have all attempted to find answers to these questions, and billions of people have read what they have to say as a result.

The answers

Unfortunately, the answers are suitably difficult to find. For sure, we can just pick up a book and blindly believe in what it says, but formulating a logical answer based on vast amounts of evidence will yield more probable conclusions and be far more interesting at the same time. That is what this essay is about - how to formulate logical conclusions, and where to find the evidence for your premises. An impartial guide to soul searching, if you like.

Logic

Premises and conclusions

Premises are the evidence that you use to formulate your conclusion - the building blocks of your argument. For example:

(1) All men are mortal.
(2) Socrates is a man.
(3) Therefore Socrates is mortal.

In this example, (1) and (2) are the premise - they are the two statements that lead to the conclusion (3).

Deductive arguments

Deductive Reasoning is an argument in which if the premises are true, it would be absolutely impossible for the conclusion to be false. This is because the premises contain the conclusion when merged together. The example just quoted (Socrates is mortal argument) is therefore an example of a deductive argument.

To test if a deductive argument is true, negate the conclusion, and if all the premises cannot be retained, the argument is valid/sound (reductio ad absurdum test). For example, if I replaced "all men are mortal", with "all men aren't mortal", then statements 1 and 2 cannot both be true. A deductive argument can, however, be valid and yet not good and a deductive argument is only good if the premises are known to be true. Furthermore, proof, in the strict sense of the word, can only be obtained by good valid deductive reasoning. This is because there is no middle ground in deductive reasoning ? the conclusion is either certain, or not valid or good.

Inductive arguments

Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, yields probability instead of proof. All arguments that draw on experimental evidence are inductive arguments, such as this argument:

(1) In a survey of 1000 people, all of them had eaten bread.
(2) Socrates is a person.
(3) Socrates has eaten bread.

Whilst this argument is probably true, it is not certain and therefore not proof. An inductive argument is only valid if the subject is significantly similar to the experimental evidence, but is again only good if the premises are known to be true. Inductive arguments can also carry different amounts of weight, as variables such as the amount of experimental retakes, or the adherence between subject and evidence, change in different arguments. This means it is entirely reasonable to accept one inductive argument's conclusion, whilst denying another's conclusion outright on the grounds of one being more probable than the other.

Valid

A deductive argument is valid if the premise can only lead to one conclusion. For example, "I am powerful, therefore I am God" is not a valid argument because the premise (I am powerful) doesn't necessarily lead to the conclusion that I am God - ie I could be powerful and still not be God. An inductive argument, on the other hand, is said to be valid if it contains no fallacies.

Fallacies and the laws of logic

Fallacies are logical errors in arguments. For example, saying "God exists because I believe in him" is a fallacy because the reasoning is circular, and one of the fundamental laws of logic is that circular reasoning (A proves B, because A proves B) is not valid evidence.

Finding other laws of logic, is up to you, and certainly some of these laws are disputed between philosophers. However, there is a very easy way of judging whether an argument is fallacious or not, and that is by using the analogy of a simpler situation. Now whilst this doesn't yield conclusive results, and is more accurate if you use more analogies, it helps you to quickly judge an argument. For example, in the "God Exists, because I believe in him" argument, I usesd the analogy of the letters A and B in the same form to prove that it is fallacious.

Research

What are you looking for?

What tools you use to research really does depend on what you aim to discover. However, you will quickly find that many fields of philosophy are closely related, and some fields are fundamental to practically all other areas of philosophy. I would certainly recommend at least a brief look at epistemology (the nature of knowledge), and logic (although we have already covered some of that), so that the other fields of philosophy become more accessible.

What you then look at, however, is entirely up to you. Examples include ethics (morality), the existence of God, and analytic philosophy (deals with language). A good way to develop you interest is to subscribe to the monthly Philosophy Forge Newsletter, or listen to The Infidel Guy radio shows (see links at the top). I'd also recommend having a look at Buddhism, not because I follow it (in fact, I don't), but because many aspects of Buddhism can be extremely useful for you in life.

In depth research

When you find something specific that you want to research, your first port of call should be an article on the internet. After reading that, if you want to know more, look at the footnotes and see what books the author used. Book lists are also useful, and be sure to check the reviews. But most of all, doubt absolutely everything you pick up. Philosophers are often wrong, and you'll need to spot when they are. And that means doubting arguments even though you agree with the conclusions. In fact, when I first heard about the reductio ad absurdum test, I was very skeptical and tried numerous deductive arguments to see if I could break it.

Your Conclusions

Test them

This is absolutely essential in order to formulate rational conclusions. Tell real people about your conclusions, and see what they think. Internet forums are a great resource for this, but remember that just because other people may think you are wrong doesn't mean that you are. In short, debate. And if you ever want some help, don't hesitate to send me an email using the contact form on the Philosophy Forge site, which you can access from the "contact me" link at the top of this site.



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