In its most common sense, philosophical methodology is the field of inquiry studying the methods used to do philosophy. But the term can also refer to the methods themselves. It may be understood in a wide sense as the general study of principles used for theory selection, or in a more narrow sense as the study of ways of conducting one's research and theorizing with the goal of acquiring philosophical knowledge. Philosophical methodology investigates both descriptive issues, such as which methods actually have been used by philosophers, and normative issues, such as which methods should be used or how to do good philosophy.
A great variety of philosophical methods have been employed.
Methodological skepticism uses systematic doubt in its search for absolutely certain or indubitable first principles of philosophy.
The geometrical method starts with a small set of such principles and tries to build a comprehensive philosophical system on this small foundation based on deductive inferences.
The phenomenological method aims to arrive at certain knowledge about the realm of appearances by suspending one's judgments about the external world underlying these appearances.
Verificationists focus on the conditions of empirical verification of philosophical claims in order to understand their meaning and to expose meaningless claims.
Conceptual analysis is used to analyze philosophical concepts by determining their fundamental constituents with the goal of clarifying their meaning.
Common-sense philosophy uses commonly accepted beliefs as its starting point for philosophizing. It is often used in a negative sense to criticize radical philosophical positions that constitute a significant departure from common sense.
It is closely related to ordinary language philosophy, which approaches philosophical problems by studying how the related terms are used in ordinary language.
Intuition-based methods use intuitions, i.e. non-inferential impressions concerning specific cases or general principles, to evaluate whether a philosophical claim is true or false. Intuitions play a central role in thought experiments, in which certain situations are imagined and their possible consequences are assessed in order to confirm or refute philosophical theories.
The method of reflective equilibrium consists in considering all the relevant evidence for and against a theory with the goal of arriving at a balanced and coherent perspective on the issue in question.
Pragmatists focus on the consequences of accepting or rejecting philosophical theories with the purpose of assessing whether the theories are true or false.
The transcendental method (German: Transzendentale Methodenlehre) usually starts with trivial facts about mental life and tries to infer various conclusions from them based on the claim that the trivial fact could not be true if these conclusions were false, i.e. that they constitute its conditions of possibility.
Experimental philosophy applies the methods found in social psychology and the cognitive sciences, such as conducting surveys, to philosophical problems. Other methods include the Socratic method, theory selection based on theoretical virtues, methodological naturalism, truthmaker theory, and the genealogical method.
The questions in philosophical methodology do not primarily concern which philosophical claims are true, but how to determine which ones are true. However, these two issues are closely related nonetheless since the choice of one's method often has important implications for the arguments cited for and against philosophical theories. In this sense, methodological disagreements are often reflected in philosophical disagreements. Philosophical methodology is closely related to various fields. Theorists often use the contrast to the natural sciences to emphasize how different the methods of philosophy are. Philosophical methodology has also an intimate relation with epistemology since both fields are interested in studying how to determine what we should believe.
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In its most common sense, philosophicalmethodology is the field of inquiry studying the methods used to do philosophy. But the term can also refer to...
common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion...
Is PhilosophicalMethodology?". In Cappelen, Herman; Gendler, Tamar Szabó; Hawthorne, John (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of PhilosophicalMethodology. Oxford...
However, some theorists distinguish philosophical skepticism from methodological skepticism in that philosophical skepticism is an approach that questions...
is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary...
clearer meaning to the phrase. Methodological skepticism is distinguished from philosophical skepticism in that methodological skepticism is an approach that...
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"Lonergan's theological methodology seems to me to be so generic that it really fits every science, and hence is not the methodology of theology as such,...
Philosophical analysis is any of various techniques, typically used by philosophers in the analytic tradition, in order to "break down" (i.e. analyze)...
Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments...
Socratic questioning (or Socratic maieutics) is an educational method named after Socrates that focuses on discovering answers by asking questions of students...
In the thought of the philosopher Daniel Dennett, heterophenomenology ("phenomenology of another, not oneself") is an explicitly third-person, scientific...
Ordinary language philosophy (OLP) is a philosophicalmethodology that sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers...
Intellectual honesty is an applied method of problem solving characterised by a nonpartisan and honest attitude, which can be demonstrated in a number...
a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is chiefly associated in the West with the Socratic...
research focuses on issues in philosophical psychology, epistemology, metaphysics, and areas related to philosophicalmethodology. Gendler was born in 1965...
classical pragmatists. This divergence may occur either in their philosophicalmethodology (many of them are loyal to the analytic tradition) or in conceptual...
dialogues, such as Theaetetus or Sophist, Plato had a different method to philosophical discussions, namely dialectic.[citation needed] Elenchus (Ancient Greek:...
controlled experiments, is an available and highly successful philosophicalmethodology. Within fields of study that are concerned directly with humans...
Dialectical logic is the system of laws of thought, developed within the Hegelian and Marxist traditions, which seeks to supplement or replace the laws...
differential diagnosis. Disjunctive syllogism Law of excluded middle Philosophical razor Troubleshooting twenty questions Spoken word game using logic...
to inform research on philosophical questions. This use of empirical data is widely seen as opposed to a philosophicalmethodology that relies mainly on...
or radical skepticism, which wants to suspend judgment indefinitely. Philosophical skepticism is one important form of skepticism. It rejects knowledge...
results to engage in reasoned model building and theoretical inquiry. Philosophical empiricists hold no knowledge to be properly inferred or deduced unless...
Ballantine Publishing Group, (New York), 1998; Sylvan, D. & Majeski, S., "A Methodology for the Study of Historical Counterfactuals", International Studies Quarterly...
them as evidence for a philosophical claim. Timothy Williamson responded to such objections against philosophicalmethodology by arguing that intuition...
than at." Charles Taylor, "The Validity of Transcendental Arguments", Philosophical Arguments (Harvard, 1997), 32. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy...
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