Get Oriented to Schools of Philosophy

Questions to be Answered

A School of Philosophy is an association built around a doctrine. So this section will deal with issues like:

• How do doctrines and schools arise?
• Who joins a school and how?
• Why is there such a concern for orthodoxy?
• Are doctrines scientific and can they be corrected and developed?
• How do schools compare with each other?
• How can a school be established?
• What different sorts of work and work-role do schools require?

To answer these questions and others requires an examination of the work to support the association defined by the formula PH'5Q5. See the THEE path here.

Sources for the Inquiry

In developing this framework, I draw on my personal experiences as a reflective scientist and with scientists discussing science and public ignorance. I will also focus on psychoanalysis where I have been involved deeply in both the doctrine and the school nationally (in the UK) and internationally. I have also had relevant experience with the introduction of family therapy in the UK and been closely involved with Jaquesian doctrine and the attempt at creating a school. My reading has covered a wider variety of religious doctrines. I am less at home with political doctrines and philosophical schools of thought.

Begin with Language

THEE contains a COMMUNICATION Domain (RL5/PH5) that is driven by a primal need to associate. Communication is the glue of social groups through the reality members share. The Q-expansion (PH'5Q) in this Domain contains 7 arenas of associating that reveal a socially important categorization. See the full pattern by clicking on the thumbnail.

The work to sustain groups in each arena is markedly different.

• See general introduction to work.
• See Q2 Formal Organisations.
• See Q4 Societal Institutions.

This Q5 Arena contains Philosophy Schools and work here demands use of the two methods for using language (PH'5) that engage most directly with reality as we generally experience it:

The L'5-gestalt method appeals to a deep awareness that generates belief, while the L'6-logical method ensures there is a direct correspondence of words with things and events.

The resulting construal of reality emerges as a written doctrine whose survival and integrity depends on protection by what is usually called a "school". So this section is about doctrines or teachings and the philosophy schools whose members represent, develop and spread them.

Note that this Q5-philosophic construal is not the Q3-academic knowing, built on arcane conceptual-L'3 and simple universal-L'4 language. It is a distinct and seemingly more powerful form of knowledge that may appear esoteric and hard to grasp.

For a review of the various ways of knowing, see here.

Take a Step Back

Before entering the Q5-Philosophy world, some preliminary clearing of the ground is required.

This inquiry into personal functioning in the Q5-Arena is not philosophical at all, it is observational and practical.
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Because teachings involve belief, but claim the status of knowledge, such a study may seem to force us into issues of epistemology. But a philosophical study of the nature, origin and limits of human knowledge is not our concern. Academic philosophers are encouraged to take from this taxonomic analysis what they will.

Terms like ‘doctrine’ and ‘philosophical’ may make you wonder how any analysis could be relevant to the person-in-the-street. But the brute fact is that we are all indoctrinated with fundamental beliefs as we grow up. But this is largely hidden from us—and we are further bombarded by ideas-originating-from-doctrines as adults—although this is again mostly hidden. So we would be wise to know what is going on in this arena, even if it never becomes our stamping ground.

Because ‘knowing’ and ‘reality’ are everyday matters, you can be confident that the THEE taxonomic approach will again prove helpful with its down-to-earth insights. There is no indoctrination here: read, reflect and judge—it is your call. Do not hesitate to ask questions or suggest improvements.

Alternative Ways of Knowing

Doctrines are a specific way to know reality, but if you wish to consider «reality» and «knowing» from the broadest possible perspective of personal functioning, go the Appendices. This should help disperse confusions with the special kind of knowing, work-responsibility and association captured by the formal THEE name: Philosophy School-PH'5Q5.

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• For those interested in taxonomic structure, see the path to schools.
• Otherwise, start now with an introduction to philosophy schools.

Originally posted: 15-Jul-2022. Last updated: 15-Apr-2024.