On philosophical method paper for the philosophy group meeting August 15, 2012 by Jörg Zeller

1. Onphilosophicalmethodpaper for the philosophygroup meetingAugust 15, 2012by Jörg Zeller on philosophical method

2. Philosophicalmethod 1 Philosophicalinvestigationsdiffer from otherscientific research by instead of investigatingobjectsorfields of objectslookinginto the possibilitieshowweareable to investigatethem. Whilescientists for instance research into the constituents, structures, and ways of function of different types of physicalsubstance, philosophersarereflectingabout the possibilities to understand the physical world by means of conceptslike ’substance’, ’structure’ or ’function’. on philosophical method

3. Whatphilosophy is about Let’scall a consciousbeing a subject and kinds of being a subjectcanbeconscious of object. Knowledgecanthenbeunderstood as a relation – orratherprocess – betweensubject and object. While science is aboutobjects, philosophy is about – so to say – subject-objects. Science investigates the world (the totality of being) objectively but philosophydoes it subject-objectively. I willcall the totality of subject-objectivebeings – inspired by Nørreklit 2012 and earlier – reality. on philosophical method

4. Philosophy as organicmethodology Science investigates phenomena or problems by taking something (facts, principles, postulates) for granted (given) while philosophy reflects about what a subject is doing when it takes something for granted. In consequence, philosophy takes nothing for granted. The philosophical question is then how we can achieve knowledge about something without taking something other for granted. If this not should end in scepticism philosophy has to give (Fichte said: to set) something. This makes philosophical method something that tries to create thinking or acting instruments (for reality construction) in a similar way as Aristotle understood logic as organon – i. e. not only as objective means but also as subjective organs or abilities to act. I will call such a (complementarily) subject-objective methodology organic. on philosophical method

5. Reality construction While science operates empirical describing (or sometimes measuring) or theoretical explaining, philosophy shows what a subject has to do to conceive something as object, to form concepts, assert propositions, infer conclusions about it, or to act on basis of them. One could say: philosophy is about the working of subjects (consciousness). – That is, in a way, psychology too. The difference is: psychology is an empirical science about the working of empirical subjects. In contrast, philosophy is investigating into the working of subjectivity by constructing (designing) means of thinking and acting - or as I said thinking and acting organs. Because of its constructive methodology philosophy resembles other creative practice forms – like technology and art. Creative practices have in common that they not only investigate how the world in fact is but produce or create something that is supposed to make the world meaningful and valuable – i.e. a subject-objective reality. on philosophical method

6. Knowledge as process If it is the task of philosophy to create (construct organs to) knowledge without taking something (in advance, a priori) for granted then it’s crucial to realize that knowledge – the process that creates knowledge – isn’t a static relation between subject and object. Like other processes knowledge is something that happens – i.e. takes time and place – and needs an acting cause (power)or actor (ability) to become real. Real knowledge processes are dynamic change processes creating new reality views and action possibilities. While science investigates how the world is, philosophy creates reality-alternatives. on philosophical method

7. Philosophical method 2: holism There are, eventually, also differences between philosophy, technology and art. While the latter try to satisfy partial practical needs or aesthetical wishes, the intention of philosophy is holistic. If we differentiate like Aristotle between epistemic (scientific), poietic (technical, artistic), and practical (social, ethical) action intentions then philosophical intention can be understood as the experiment to integrate these different aspects of the human ability to act in a unit of higher level. According to Aristotle the aim of this enterprise was to create something in itself desirable and valuable. In case of success he called it eudaimonia, often translated as happiness or good life. Philosophy understood this way is an attempt to create a better than the actually existing reality. The integrative and constructive aspects of philosophical method are in my opinion best represented in the philosophical approach, Wittgenstein 1963 called language game. on philosophical method

8. Language game I will call the whole: language and the activities, it is interwoven with, ‘language game’ (Wittgenstein 1963, PU 7). To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life. (PU, 19) The word ‘language game’ shall underline that speaking a language is part of an activity, or a form of life. (PU 23) on philosophical method

9. Language game as philosophical method 1 Language games take place between several actors that see their other activities through potentially meaningful (signifying) utterances. What it is these utterances signify can become clear on basis of their connection (interwovenness) with the other activities of the actors. This connection between sign and the wholeness of the interaction situation is not – like in other language and meaning theories – theoretical but practical. Sign and the signified is connected for the actors because they actually connect them by all their activities in the situation. The actors of a language game learn a language (generally: a communication system) by creating (construing, producing) it. To play a language game doesn’t have (don’t need) theoretical presuppositions or rules (practical conditions) in advance. The presuppositions and conditions for meaningful actions become created by the actions themselves (sc. Wittgenstein’s ‘make up the rules as we go along’). The language game players can practically play as long as necessary to begin to understand each other. Language game can be understood as method for constructing of communication – and thereby – meaning and value systems (culture). on philosophical method

10. Language game as philosophical method 2 Subject-object relations (sc. slide 3), i.e. the subject of philosophy, get realized by actions. By actions we realize our understanding of and intentions regarding the world. The result of this process (practice) I call – as said before – reality. The means (“organs”) of thinking and (other forms of) action that here assert themselves I call logic of practice. ‘Logic’ is here not (only) understood as specialized symbol-calculi but as language games in a very broad sense. In contrast to classical and modern logic practice logic is not (only) object-, but subject-object oriented. Subjects are by bodies connected with environments – ‘body’ understood as sensorimotor organism (totality and system of organs). ‘Organ’ understood not only as objective (bodily) means but also as subjective ability to perform actions. We experience, perceive, think and act by activating different body organs. There exist a lot of examples in the history of philosophy that view conscious activities as “bodiless”. Approaches of this kind make it difficult, if not impossible, to understand how we should be able bodiless to connect signs (a kind of real or imaginable objects, for instance the sound ‘lion’) with (other kinds of real or imaginable) objects (the natural type of big cats). on philosophical method

11. Philosophical learning – by doing Applying language game method as principle of learning can be understood as a philosophical variant of the pragmatistic ‘learning by doing’. I call it also experimental philosophy. I am designing my teaching of the reality part of the 1. semester course – virkelighed, erkendelse, logik – as a process of language game experiments. I do this in cooperation with one of our candidate students. She has inter alia an education as dancer and experiences with applying bodily sensorimotor means in teaching. Our teaching resources will be the living body (Merleau-Ponty) of the students and the facilities (understood as the totality of objects, their properties, relations and space-time localisation) of the teaching locality. I call this concrete subject-objective totality also learning situation. The learning process of the students is supposed to consist in researching the learning situation (i.e. the environmental learning space-time) by trying to translate metaphysical concepts into bodily activities. For the present, the program for the course looks inn Danish like this (next slide): onphilosophicalmethod

12. Kursets program • Metafysik i 5 undervisningsgange: • rum-tid-genstand: omgivelse, verden, fakta, information; EP (erkendelsesform): sansning • kvalitet, kvantitet, relation, situation; EP: perception* (sansning + tænkning: begreb) • kausalitet, bevægelse (årsag, kraft), forandring, historie; EP: erfaring* (udsagn) • bevidst-væren: subjekt-horisont/perspektiv-objekt; handling; EP: forståelse, følelse (teoretisk, pragmatisk (poietisk) slutning) • mening-værdi: virkelighed, kultur, artefakta; EP: erkendelse, vurdering (praktisk slutning) *Ifølge Kant 1977 er perceptionsudsagn kun subjektive, mens han kalder objektive perceptionsudsagn erfaringsudsagn (jf. ibidem, 544). on philosophical method