Difference between General and Technical philosophies.

  

Date Posted: 12/20/2012 5:27:38 AM

Posted By: jullieflavia  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 2188

---

GENERAL PHILOSOPHY.
This is the broad world of philosophy inhabited by all those who seriously and genuinely try to come to terms with life and who struggle for understanding and wisdom. It is characterized by a genuine human response to life and it’s taught in most cultures and societies. It also refers to those set of beliefs, assumptions, traditions, customs or principles which individuals or societies have defined and set informally way to regulate general thinking, habits and conduct of life. They include traditional habits, modes of character and intellectual inclinations of a general kind. Others are: cultural traditions, attitudes, values & peer-driven norms and standards of conduct which individuals or societies have set and use to respond to every day tribulations and/or universal issues of life.

Such philosophies may be used in making decisions on some traditional event like marriage or divorce; hereditary issues, they may be used to assign status, offer simple explanations of weather and seasons and simple predictions of some future event.

General philosophies may be personal or collective: they are general because they tend to be subjective; they are not a product of serious deliberation and thought. They are informal in nature and they are not written in any form or way. They are frequently formed in the course of prolonged experience and are normally unstable in that they do not stand the test of time. They tend to be abandoned as they become outdated or as they get ousted by more reliable, rival, valid and well tested positions, beliefs or assumptions. According to Njoroge and Bennars (1986) 8 state that what makes a response philosophical is NOT the way it is expressed, in simple or sophisticated language, in oral or written form. Nor does it matter if the statement comes from a student, political leader, peasant or

a learned scholar. What matters eventually, what makes any human thought philosophical in character is the authenticity of the thought. General philosophy is the universal part of philosophy.
An example of general philosophy is sage philosophy which was propagated in the 1970s by Henry Odera Oruka, in an attempt to preserve the knowledge of the indigenous thinkers in traditional African communities.

TECHNICAL PHILOSOPHY.
It is sometimes referred to as professional philosophy; for one to claim to be a technical philosopher one must study the history of European philosophy and be conversant with all the Greek philosophers. Some individuals refer to it as formal philosophy. Technical philosophy is a formal area of discipline which contains tested and verified beliefs, assumptions, principles or ideas in some clearly identifiable and special form of experience. Technical philosophy has grown out of the wide world of general philosophy; this has taken place through three factors namely formalization, westernization and specialization.
a) Formalization.
The term ‘form’ refers to the presence of a system, pattern or structure therefore formalization is the process when various human activities are given a specific kind of structure or system. This leads to the implication that when we talk about formal education we mean a well defined system of education. Some few thousand years ago, the technique of writing developed in different parts of the world; hence ideas came to be expressed in a more systematic, more definite and a more lasting form.
The formalization of ideas through writing encouraged the development of formal philosophy. The first philosophical writings in any given area mark the beginning of technical philosophy. Indian formal philosophy goes back to The Vedas as well as the beginnings of Chinese formal philosophy dates back to the written works of Kung’ Futzu (Confucius) and Lao Tzu. In Western Europe, the beginnings are found in the philosophical writings of the ancient Greek philosophers in the ancient philosophy period; from 600BC-300AD. The likes of Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Empedocles.
Nowadays, the world of technical philosophy is a world of books, formal language, scholarly writings and systematic thought. Thus this does not leave room for the common philosophies of life even if they may be personal or collective.

b) Westernization.
Due to the once dominant position of western civilization which resulted in imperialism and colonialism; formal philosophy with time came to be dominated by western philosophers. Philosophy in the formal, technical sense came to be regarded as a predominantly western affair; the impression created by western books on philosophy. The books tell that formal philosophy started in ancient Greece and developed from there in Western Europe into what it is now.
Anyone who wishes to be a formal philosopher, he/she must be familiar with western philosophy, various schools of thought like realism, idealism, pragmatism, and writings of famous western philosophers and with all the technical language used in western philosophy.
The world of technical philosophy is highly western in expression, character and orientation. In other words western philosophy to all appearances provides the standard of what technical philosophy ought to be / supposed to be. This type of conclusion is internationally accepted as a result of the specialization that has occurred in formal philosophy through the efforts of western philosophers.
c) Specialization.
This is the process when persons acquire exceptional knowledge about or skills in a particular subject as a result of intensive and constant study of the subject. Thus the persons are referred to as experts or specialists in their field.
With the increase of specialists in a given field, they tend to create a small globe of their own; which is characterized by a special language, special interests, special skills and special methods.
In the case of professional philosophy, specialization occurred at different times in history and in different parts of the world: the western European countries, the Middle East region and in Asian countries like China, India and Japan.
Even though specialization took place at different times and in different areas; due to westernization the western specialists started at one time to dominate the field of technical philosophy, and they subsequently imposed their methods, language and interests upon others.
Through specialization and westernization professional philosophy became highly technical because of its western context and the experts in the field.

---

Next: Benefits of a lesson plan to a teacher in Kenya
Previous: Election Offences to watch out for in Kenya