Some Methods from the Ancient World
Socrates’ Method: Interrogation
- arguably the most famous method in the ancient world
- also known as the question-and-answer method
- gets the individual to remember the truths ingrained in his soul
- mostly rejected today due to the belief that our minds start as blank slates ready to be written with XP
Zeno’s Method: Reductio ad Absurdum
- Zeno was the famous pupil of Parmenides
- developed before Socrates
- ultimate reality is one, not many
- pros
- led to the fundamental law of noncontradiction—a position can’t be true if it has contradictions
- cons
- can be used with highly questionable premises
- not all arguments can be equally divided into 2 alternatives
- it’s often hard to find a contradiction with divided arguments
- negative test for truth; can make things appear false, but can’t make them appear true
Aristotle’s Method: Deduction
- Aristotle used both inductive and deductive reasoning, but he’s more famous for deduction
- deductive reasoning: general → particular
- e.g. if all horses are 4-legged animals, and Black Beauty is a horse, then Black Beauty must be a 4-legged animal
- inductive reasoning: particular → general
- e.g. all observable elements of a wall are stone, therefore, the whole wall is stone
- can be problematic due to disagreement regarding universal trues
- they can accommodate uncertainties (e.g. it is probably true that all men are mortal)
Some methods in the Modern World
The Inductive Method