Being able to effectively question things is the key to success in the philosophical arena. Here are 9 steps to help you question inquiries of interest in an analytical fashion.
How do you become a philosopher? One must be able to dive in head first, not only to discover a solution, but to unearth critical details to the situation at hand. The facts a philosopher gathers in their satchel of knowledge can be very powerful in establishing arguments and research papers.
Here are what most philosophy professors would expect in the process of questioning according to a very old handout I've always referenced in my philosophical journey.
9 Steps of Philosophical Questioning
1. Analyze the situation and collect all facts.
2. Be impartial and unprejudiced in the observation of these facts. This will be difficult due to established systems. No progress can be made if our ideas are prejudged.
3. Be aware that there is little doubt that our emotions will eventually decide almost all questions for us.
4. We must proceed to the proposed solution. Many times this will be an insight or an intuition of how to solve the problem at hand.
5. This intuition gives us a clue to establish a theory. We must have a theory and it must be verified. Lack of verification will cause a philosopher to lose interest in the theory.
6. The logical process of verification involves deductive reasoning. This means you will use an "if-then" process of thought.
7. You need to try your deductions by comparing them with your facts. If a fact is not verified, then try another. ("If-then" thought ;)). This should continue to resolution.
8. The great philosopher processes what is called "sagacity"; a kind of vision or inspiration.
9. An essential part of obtaining answers lies in empirical methods. It is the idea that theories can be tested by experience.
*The following steps should be carefully implemented or put into action by a lover of wisdom*
““In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”
― Bertrand Russell”