Philosophy needs vision and argument
"There is something disappointing about a philosophical work that contains arguments, however good, which were not inspired by some genuine vision.
And something disappointing about a philosophical work that contains a vision, however inspiring, which is unsupported by arguments."
1. Argument
Definition
"When we talk about argument or arguments in the context of philosophy, we just mean evidence and chain of reasoning that try to demonstrate the truth of some conclusion or another."
Argument doesn't have to besomething that is
- bad tempered [ˈtɛmpəd]
- or confrontational [ˌkɒnfrʌnˈteɪʃən(ə)l]
Argument consists of
- One or more premises [ˈprɛmɪsɪz]
- Conclusion
Premises
"Claims that the argument makes in order to support its conclusion."
Making our thinking clear and precise
"It's very hard to try and boil down our thinking to straight [streɪt] forward series of premises and conclusions. But that doesn't mean that it’s not usually a good idea to try and do that. To try and make our thinking as clear and precise to ourselves as we possibly can."
Crucial part of what it is to do philosophy
- looking at arguments
- identifying [aɪˈdɛntɪfaɪɪŋ] their premises
- trying to work out whether they're valid [ˈvælɪd]
We see that an argument is sound
When it is valid
When true premises are there too.
We can question soundness of an argument
"- either by questioning the truth of its premises. We can criticize the argument by criticizing the truth of its premises. The premises might not be true
- or by questioning its validity. We can question the way that the conclusion follows from the premises. When the conclusion of an argument follows from its premises, that means, when the conclusion has to be true if the premises are true, then the argument is valid."
2. Vision
Vision
" - We need to keep the big picture in mind when we're thinking about whether or not we accept a conclusion, or what we think of an argument. For example, it really helps us focus the question of what it is that we mean when we think that we do have free control over our actions
- We also need to think about the vision, the big picture that inspires that argument. What's the person who's putting forward the argument really trying to say? What are they really trying to get at?"
SOURCES
'Introduction to Philosophy' course (the University of Edinburgh)
https://www.coursera.org/learn/philosophy