Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Two Tiers and Two Domains of Philosophy

There are two tiers of philosophy, and two domains of philosophy. These lines of distinction cut across each other.

The first tier of philosophy is one that everyone should work hard to stay on: simple, clear thinking.

The second tier of philosophy is professional; some men choose to spend their lives dedicated to learning how to think, thinking, and teaching others how to think. Professional philosophy usually involves specialized jargon, to facilitate precision and speedy discussion.

The first domain of philosophy is “a priori”. This means of reasoning is built on pure thinking, without any observation. A priori arguments apply clear analysis to thoughts that can be found without inspection of the external world (for example, “2+2=4”, and “I exist”).

The second domain of philosophy is “a posteriori”. This means of reasoning is built on observation. A posteriori arguments apply clear analysis to data gathered by inspection of the external world (for example, “a man named Thomas existed in the first century and was convinced that he had seen Jesus alive, after Jesus had died”, and “at 5:07 PM, on August 26th, 2007, it was 71 degrees Fahrenheit inside Java on Sherman, in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho”).

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