Philosophy

A thinker deep in thought

The question of how to define the general concept of philosophy is itself "philosophical" and as the profound as the questions philosophers ask. The diverse historical and cultural activity of Philosophy is the historical study of the meaning and justification of beliefs about the most general, or universal, aspects of things. It is a study which is carried out, not only by experimentation or careful observation, but also by formulating problems carefully, or logically. By composing arguments and offering solutions, or counter-arguments, to them philosophers engage in a "Dialectic" about the greatest questions. In general terms, Philosophy is the critical, speculative, analytical study of The Big Questions, with subtle reflection on the methods used in those studies. A philosopher therefore studies such concepts as Existence, Purpose, Morality, Knowledge, and Beauty, and asks questions:

• "What is the purpose of life?"
• "What does it mean to be 'Good'?"
• "How is knowledge possible?"
• "Where did we come from?"

Getting Started

If you're already interested in studying Philosophy, it may be that you want to improve the way you live - or the way you think. Maybe you wish to get acquainted with one of the most original areas of human thought. Why people are motivated to "do Philosophy" is as varied as the people doing it, and their Philosophical Methods are as interesting as their personal lives - it's all important in understanding how philosophers think.

It is important to know that Philosophy is a discipline, but one which draws on knowledge just about any person has. Philosophy definitely makes use of careful experimentation and observations, though it may also be an activity of interpreting various aspects of those experiments and observations. To do Philosophy is to examine the meaning and justification of our most basic and fundamental thoughts, even our most cherished beliefs. Basically, Philosophy concerns those aspects of the Universe which are most commonly found and studied, the things and properties which are really everywhere - the universal aspects of all things.

Philosophers study, for example, what it means to Exist. They also study Ethics (or Value Theory), and in that capacity, may wonder how we find the relevance of value, the goodness, everywhere, or why anything is actually desirable. On another subject, Physics and the other Sciences are studied through experiments and evaluated as sources of knowledge or Truth. Philosophy is really quite vast, and is about all aspects of "Reality". In fact, because philosophers rely upon Logic (sometimes exasperatingly so), and because Logic is the basis of all experimentation, the philosophical view of things can be very general, indeed.

Historical Developments

All civilizations around the world have considered these same questions, in one form or another, and have built their own philosophical traditions based upon each other's works. Though there is a rich borrowing and respect among philosophers from various times and places, Philosophy may be usefully divided into general "styles" based loosely on geography, Western, Middle Eastern, African, and Eastern. The term "philosophy" alone, dominated by a European and American academic context, usually refers to the traditions of Western civilization, sometimes also called Western Philosophy, but these traditions were by no means the only way of philosophizing throughout History(1). The term has since become widespread.

Popularly, the word "philosophy" is often used to mean any form of wisdom, or any person's perspective on life (as in "philosophy of life") or basic principles behind or method of achieving something (as in "my philosophy about American Politics"). Originally(2), "philosophy" is a western term, and meant simply "the love of wisdom." Philo- comes from the Greek word philein, meaning to love, and -sophy comes from the Greek sophia, or wisdom. "Philosopher" replaced the word "Sophist" (from sophoi), which was used to describe "wise men," teachers of Rhetoric, which were important in Athenian Democracy. Some of the first Sophists are now called philosophers.

Historically, the scope of Philosophy covered all intellectual endeavors. It has since come to cover only the study of an especially abstract, nonexperimental intellectual endeavor, but in recent decades has begun to be applied more widely. In fact, and as was mentioned at the opening of this article, philosophy is a notoriously difficult word to define, and the question, "What is Philosophy?", has vexed many a young student and wise teacher as well.

Major Areas and Connections

• Metaphysics: With Ontology and Teleology, very abstract areas, there are direct applications into Physics, Astronomy, Logic and Mathematics, and even Computer Science.
• Epistemology: Connections from Physics to Psychology can be found, a study of how we know things, and it defines Knowledge, Evidence, and Justified Belief.
• Philosophy of Science: Discussion of the underpinnings of the Scientific Method, among other scientific topics.
• Aesthetics: With Art History, this helps interpret the meaning and usefullness of the Arts.
• Ethics: From Applied Ethics, to Bioethics and Political Philosophy, this connects with the philosophies of John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and John Rawls, and earlier, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Immanuel Kant, among others.

Expanded Areas

• Philosophy of Education: Progressive Education was championed by George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, and John Dewey, and has had a profound impact on educational practices in the last centuries, expanded to most of the developed world.
• Philosophy of Law/Jurisprudence: Provides us with a deeper understanding of the theoretical, conceptual underpinnings of Governments and legislative action.
• Philosophical Counseling: A growing profession devoted to applying Philosophy, rather than Psychology or Psychiatry, to the problems of life, and is especially related to Religion and Ethics in a century of complex relations.

Further Reading

• History of Philosophy and Philosophical Movements
• Western, Middle Eastern, African, Eastern and New Philosophy
• PseudoPhilosophy
• A list of Philosophers

External Links

• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Notes

1. Eastern Philosophy, or that of Asia, includes the thought of Gautama Buddha, Bodhidharma, Lao Zi, Confucius, Zhuang Zi, and Mao Zedong. Middle Eastern Philosophy is largely based on the interpretations of prophets of the Abrahamic religions, such as Islamic Philosophy, Christian Philosophy, and Jewish Philosophy. African Philosophy is based on the diverse historical tribes of Africa. The Western tradition began with the Greeks, including the works of Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Ren? Descartes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
2. The introduction of the term "philosophy" was ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras (see Diogenes Laertius: "De vita et moribus philosophorum", I, 12; Cicero: "Tusculanae disputationes", V, 8-9). This ascription is certainly based on a passage in a lost work of Herakleides Pontikos, a disciple of Aristotle. It is considered to be part of the widespread Pythagoras legends of this time. In fact the term "philosophy" was not in use before Plato.

Some content adapted from the Wikinfo article "Philosophy" under the GNU Free Documentation License.