To begin our discussion, please be sure that you have read the materials for this Unit, and
then
respond to these topics:
Give a personal example of where you’ve seen or experienced each of the basic schools
of thought for Philosophy (based on the Unit 1 readings).
Which of the three basic schools of Philosophy is most in line with your decision
processes on a day-to-day basis? Why?
Include a bullet or two about the ‘value’ (re: advantages) of these schools of thought in
everyday living
Give a personal example of where you’ve seen or experienced each of the basic schools of
thought for Philosophy
The three basic schools of thought for Philosophy are pragmatism, positivism and realism.
First I will discuss how each of the basic schools of thought for philosophy is related to my
experiences and observations.
Pragmatism states that a proposition must be true if it has practical efficiency. In pragmatism,
an ideology or proposition must be true if it works, and in order to understand the meaning of
a proposition, we must investigate the practical consequences of accepting it and rejecting it,
and reject the impractical ideas. When I was deciding whether to do the Bachelor's at
UoPeople, I was using the pragmatic approach - I tested whether the programme is suitable
for me and whether my academic progress is satisfactory, and then evaluated the
consequences of continuing studying and dropping the degree after the foundation courses.
The practical consequences of continuing my studies were big enough to accept the idea.
Positivism states that certain "positive" knowledge is based on observational data of
phenomena which have properties and relations. For me, this can be interpreted as
"conclusions have to be based on what you see (not what you feel)". This approach helped
me stay more objective when facing challenges in my studies such as lack of time, which felt
like a problem which cannot be solved, but my observations showed that I can make time if I
adjusted schedule so and so and left some things out of it.
Realism is based on the idea that we have objects which exist, have properties, and both the
objects and the properties are independent. The concept of independence for me is
transferrable to issues or situations as well, and whenever I have multiple problems to deal
with, I isolate one independent problem and tackle that irrespective of any other problems.
For example, this is how I get my assignments done - if I tried doing one assignment while
thinking of another, I would never get anything done.
Of the three basic schools of Philosophy is most in line with your decision processes on a
day-to-day basis? Why?
I feel pragmatism is most in line with my everyday thought process. I know how to isolate
issues and view them independently (which is more in the realm of realism) but it is the
pragmatism school which is most helpful in making difficult decisions. I ask myself "ok what
does doing this give me?", "will the result I get be satisfactory", "what are the consequences
of doing this", "what are the consequences of Not doing this"?
The ‘value’ of these schools of thought in everyday life:
Pragmatism can be useful to create a clearer order of thought when accepting or rejecting an
idea or proposal. In pragmatism, an ideology or proposition must be true if it works, and in
order to understand the meaning of a proposition, we must investigate the practical
consequences of accepting it and rejecting it, and reject the impractical ideas. The concept
of " it must be true if it works" it close to me, as this is very pertinent to the subject of
computer science and writing code.
Positivism helps me think in more abstract terms. The basic concept of it is that we have
knowledge which is based on positive data of experience, and beyond that is just pure
mathematics and logic. This means that relying on quantitative data according to positivism
is more reliable than qualitative research. This brings objectivity to my thoughts.
Realism is useful to acknowledge a situation as it is and explore viable options. Since the
basic concepts of realism are the claim of existence and independence, this can be
interpreted in this way - let's say there is a problem, which 1) exists and 2) is independent of
any other problems. This makes it easier for me to identify and isolate the most pertinent
issues.
References:
Cline, Austin. (2017, October 5). What Is Pragmatism? Retrieved
from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-pragmatism-250583
Mellone, S.H. (1897). Some of the Leading Ideas of Comte's Positivism. International
Journal of Ethics, 8(1), 73-86.
Lebow, R. N. (June 9, 2008). The Ancient Greeks and Modern Realism: Ethics, Persuasion,
and Power. In Bell, D. (Ed.), Political Thought and Internat
