Philosophy Class

Today, my professor asked us to answer the question “What does Philosophy mean?”. Nobody answer that question. Then, he continued to examplify toward the question. Prior to answer the question, he wrote in the whiteboard “Ways of Thinking”.  As we know that undergraduate is projected to have competency in particular fields. Master students are expected to have professionalism and Doctoral students must have expertise in certain study. How to get all those things?

We study in this University is to be a professional graduates which focuses on linguistics. Then, the following question came up. How to get all those things? How to know it? The answer is we have to KNOW. What does KNOW mean? The professor explained it into five points as follows:

1.       Sensory Experience

2.       Expert Opinion

3.       Agreement with others

4.       Logical Reasoning

5.       Scientific Method  

                                                     

The first is sensory experience means the way we get the knowledge which is connected with our physical senses. They are auditory, vision and emotion. This is in line with what God’s message in Qur’an Surah Al-Waqiah. He firstly bestowed human by auditory, vision and followed by heart.   

The second ways of thinking is expert opinion. Human can actually receive knowledge from the expert. It can be seen from the reading, academician, seminar, public lectures, experience, social recognition or even the works.

Afterwards, the next is agreement with others. It can be exemplified like FGD (Focus Group Discussion) conducted by scholars.

The fourth is logical reasoning. To get the knowledge, it is important to think that it is considered as a logical way.

The last but not least is scientific method. This method is intended to get knowledge systematically. The last two points are mostly conducted in the University and prominent things.