Philosophy and Critical Thinking Skills
According to “Merriam Webster” (2012), Epistemology is the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge, especially with reference to its limits and validity. In my essay I will give you a description about the approaches to philosophical questions for each of the major philosophical areas of inquiry, and explanation of how philosophy and culture interact in the development of thought.
I will also give an explanation of why the selected philosophy best describes my identification of cultural factors that influenced my choice of philosophy. The Divisions of Philosophy falls into four areas, such as Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics (moral philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, and aesthetics), and Logic. Metaphysics has more to do with being or existence. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge and wants to know the truth. Ethics covers four different areas. Moral philosophy is the study of moral judgments.
Social philosophy is the study of society and its institutions. Political philosophy focuses on the state and seeks to determine, proper organization. Aesthetics, study of art, and of value judgment. Making a statement to me will get me to use my critical thinking skills. I for one do one believe everything I am told until sold proof, facts, or reasoning have been proven. This falls into the same perspective on how philosophy and culture interact in the development of thought. How people choose to use their words when trying to explain something to me makes a big difference.
Often times I can mistakenly misinterpret what the speaker is trying to say. In other words, something cannot be a true fact and a false fact in a sentence. I call this contradicting. However, two people coming from two different backgrounds or from two different cultures might say the same thing but mean the opposite. Using your critical thinking skills on how explanation of how philosophy and culture interact in the development of thought needs to be dug into and come out with solid proof, facts, or reasoning behind the statement.
The major philosophical area of inquiry that best describes me is Epistemology. As I have mentioned above I am the kind of person where I need to have solid proof, facts, or reasoning before I believe something someone is trying to tell me. Because Epistemology is the theory of knowledge questions related to Epistemology are What is truth? and Is it possible to know anything with absolute certainty? The more you know, the more you are able to learn and grow.
Knowledge is power. Epistemology has to do a lot on how one thinks. When I think I like to go deep into though, therefore; I rely on my own experiences as a reference. If I had none the only way to find out the truth is to experience it for my self. Some cultural factors that influenced my choice of philosophy specifically Epistemology is the Japanese cultural. For the New Year’s Japanese believes that consuming noodles will give you a long live because the noodles are longs.
Although this is not a proven factor I do see a lot of older Japanese people consuming noodles. These people look healthy and strong therefore I just believed that noodles does give you along life. Another cultural factor that influenced my choice is the Filipino culture. My husband is pure Filipino and is originally from the Philippines. His mother, my mother in law told me that saving the first washing of the rice and use that first washing of the rice water to water the orchids will help sustain the life of the orchid plant.
Because I am the kind of person that needs to have things proven to me I asked my mother in law to water one orchid with regular water and another orchid with the first washing of the rice water. Both orchids were of the same family of orchid types. After two months the orchid that was watered with the first washing of the rice produce two times as much more flowers then the regular watered orchid and the flowers from the first washing of the rice lasted about two times longer.
Some may think that this is coincidence, however; after continuously watering the orchids with the first washing of the rice water versus regular results have spoken for itself. In conclusion, I discussed the definition of Epistemology, the approaches to philosophical questions for each of the major philosophical areas of inquiry, and explanation of how philosophy and culture interact in the development of thought.
And I also gave an explanation of why the selected philosophy best describes my identification of cultural factors that influenced my choice of philosophy. Wanting to have solid proof, facts, or reasoning behind a question that is given is not a bad thing. This just shows that you obtaining answering behind a question will give you more knowledge. Knowledge is power!
References
- Merriam webster. (2012). Retrieved from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/epistemology
