From time to time I come out with pronouncements about how things work or why they are that way. People will ask me, how do you know this? The answer is what I call The Philosophic Process.
The Philosophic Process is loosely based on the well-known Scientific Method, where you make a hypothesis (a guess, or an idea) and then test it in the real world with experiments. If those experiments give results that agree with the predictions of the hypothesis, that tends to confirm it. When enough experiments have been done confirming the idea, it becomes a law, such as the law of gravity.
The Philosophic Process works in a similar way. I simply take a look at the world as it is today, and ask, “what combination of circumstances could have resulted in such a world?” The answer to that question must be what really is.
An example:
Take evolution/creation as an example. The laws of Darwin are well known and explain how “bad” mutations die off and “good” ones prosper – to the point where they increase their numbers and eventually give rise to even better life forms. Over the millennia some very complex organisms have developed.
But the evolutionists can’t explain everything – like how was the first life form created? All life as we know it has a number of things in common; that they all came together at the same time is nearly unbelievable. Yet they all had to happen together; as the first life form, there was nothing simpler it could have evolved from.
I’ve come to the conclusion that evolution does exist, but it is guided somehow by a higher intelligence. Only both these factors together can explain the diversity of life we see today.
(While I’m at it, any argument in favor of evolution can be derailed by asking one simple question: who created evolution? I’m not saying I believe in intelligent design, just that proving evolution doesn’t disprove intelligent design.)
Perhaps the best philosophic approach is to believe as one deems most sensible and most logical, based upon personal observation, personal perception, and personal equanimity.