Western Philosophy(philosophy, wiki, forked, Proteus)
Raphael, School of Athens
(Greek Philosophers) is a line of related
philosophical thinking, beginning in
Ancient Greece, and including the predominant philosophical thinking of
Europe and its former
colonies up to the present day. The concept of
philosophy itself originated in the West, derived from the ancient Greek word
philosophia; literally, "the love of wisdom" (philein = "to love" + sophia = wisdom, in the sense of theoretical or cosmic insight). However, many non-Western
Religions have adopted the term
philosophy in reference to cosmic intellectual discourse analogous to Western Philosophy. See
Eastern Philosophy.
Western Philosophy has had a tremendous influence on, and has been greatly influenced by, Western
Religion,
Science, and
Politics. Indeed, the central concepts of these fields can be thought of as elements or branches of Western Philosophy. To the Ancient Greeks, these fields were often one and the same. Thus, in the West, Philosophy is an expansive and ambiguous concept. Today, however, what generally distinguishes Philosophy from other Western disciplines is the notion that Philosophy is a "deeper" and more rational, fundamental, and universal form of thought than other disciplines.
Origins
The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker
Pythagoras (see
Diogenes Laertius: "De vita et moribus philosophorum", I, 12;
Cicero: "Tusculanae Disputationes", V, 8-9). The ascription is based on a passage in a lost work of
Herakleides Pontikos, a disciple of
Aristotle. It is considered to be part of the widespread legends of Pythagoras of this time.
"Philosopher" replaced the word "
Sophist" (from
sophoi), which was used to describe "wise men," teachers of
Rhetoric, who were important in Athens' Democracy. Some of the most famous Sophists were what we would now call philosophers, but
Plato's Dialogues often used the two terms to contrast those who are devoted to wisdom (philosophers) from those who arrogantly claim to have it (Sophists).
Socrates (at least, as portrayed by Plato) frequently characterized the Sophists as incompetents or charlatans, who hid their ignorance behind word play and flattery, and so convinced others of what was baseless or untrue. Moreover, the
Sophists were paid for their explorations. To this day, "sophist" is often used as a derogatory term for one who merely persuades rather than reasons.
The scope of Philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of (at least some of) the ancient philosophers, was
all intellectual endeavors. This included the problems of Philosophy as they are understood today; but it also included many other disciplines, such as
Mathematics and
Natural Sciences such as
Physics,
Astronomy, and
Biology. (
Aristotle, for example, wrote on all of these topics; and as late as the 17th century, these fields were still referred to as branches of "Natural Philosophy"). Over time, academic specialization and the rapid technical advance of the special Sciences led to the development of distinct disciplines for these Sciences, and their separation from Philosophy:
Mathematics became specialized even in the ancient world, and "Natural Philosophy" developed into the disciplines of the Natural Sciences over the course of the
Scientific Revolution. Today, philosophical questions are usually explicitly distinguished from the questions of the special Sciences, and characterized by the fact that (unlike those of Science) they are the sort of questions which are foundational and
abstract in nature, and which are not amenable to being answered by
experimental means alone.
Western Philosophy's Branches
As with any field of
academic study, Philosophy has many subdisciplines, but few fields are as vast as Philosophy. Generally, the subdisciplines can be organized under the major branches below, much as
Aristotle divided Philosophy originally. There is now a philosphical subdiscipline for nearly all other major fields of study, and most are concerned with the interpretations of those fields.
AestheticsThe
axiological study of basic philosophical questions about
Art and
Beauty, as well as
Art History, sometimes called the
Philosophy of Art, and closely associated with
Value Theory; bridging with
Epistemology are questions in the
Philosophy of Perception and
Philosophy of Language.
EpistemologyThe theory and study of
Knowledge,
Consciousness, and
Intelligence, including the
Mind-Body Problem in the
Philosophy of Mind, including the
Philosophy of Perception and
Philosophy of Language; bridging with
Logic and
Metaphysics is the
Philosophy of Science, with questions about the
Philosophy of Psychology and other
Social Sciences, and
Artificial Intelligence.
EthicsThe
axiological study of moral problems, including
right action,
Metaethics,
Value Theory,
Theory of Conduct,
Bioethics,
Applied Ethics;
Political Philosophy, which is concerned with
Justice and
Punishment,
Human Rights, and the role of the
State or
Government; bridging with
Metaphysics is the
Philosophy of Religion, studying the
rationality of
Faith.
LogicThe study of
Meaning and
Truth through
Argumentation (or
Argument),
Deduction,
Induction and
Reasoning, including
Propositional Logic and
Computation; the
Philosophy of Language and the
Philosophy of Mathematics; bridging with
Epistemology and
Metaphysics is the
Philosophy of Science, concerned with problems of
Induction,
Scientific Method and progress.
MetaphysicsThe study of the most basic
categories of things in
Ontology and
Teleology, such as
Existence,
objects,
properties and
Causality, including
Free Will and Determinism; bridging with
Logic and
Epistemology is the
Philosophy of Science, including the
Philosophy of Physics, concerned with
Physical Laws,
Space,
Time, and
Force, the
Philosophy of Biology and other
Sciences like
Analytical Chemistry and
Cosmology; the
Philosophy of Religion, which studies the meaning of the concept of
God and of the rationality of
Faith.
The History of PhilosophyThe study of what philosophers have written, their interpretations and influences;
Meta-Philosophy: the study of
Philosophical Method and the goals of Philosophy;
Philosophy of History;
Philosophy of Education, and other issues linking with
History and
Value.
Philosophy and Related Disciplines
Science: Many of the natural Sciences historically developed as branches of Philosophy, reflecting ancient attitudes that Philosophy covered the whole of intellectual endeavours. Aristotle practiced what would now be called
Biology,
Meterology,
Physics, and
Cosmology, alongside his Metaphysics and Ethics. As recent as the 18th century,
Physics and
Chemistry were still classified as
Natural Philosophy, the philosophical study of
Nature.
Psychology,
Economics,
Sociology, and
Linguistics all owe their very existence to Philosophy, and more recently,
Cognitive Science and
Artificial Intelligence have been forged out of the
Philosophy of Mind.
Philosophy is done
a priori, and in
prose form does not rely on
experiments. Philosophy supports the methods of Science without depending on them, and also depends upon non-scientific methods, such as
Interpretation.
Analytic Philosophy adherents often urged philosophers to emulate the methods of
Natural Science, and
W. V. Quine claimed Philosophy was a branch of Natural Science, the most abstract branch, and aproach now called "
Philosophical Naturalism". Philosophers have always devoted study to the sciences and logic. Philosophy is concerned with explaining the foundations and character knowledge in general, in science or history, thus
Philosophy of Science was branched as an active discipline from Logic and Metaphysics, pursued by trained philosophers and scientists. Some areas of the Philosophy of Science aim to fully understand experimental work in terms of the larger metaphysical questions, rather than show scientists how to conduct those experiments.
Mathematics: Mathematics uses a very specific set of rigorous methods of proof based on the rules of
Logic. Most Philosophy is written in ordinary, if sometimes obtuse, prose, and while it strives to be precise, it does not usually attain anything like logical or mathematical clarity. As a result, mathematicians rarely disagree about their results, while philosophers do indeed disagree about theirs, as well as the
methods used to attain those results.
The
Philosophy of Mathematics" is another branch of the
Philosophy of Science, but in many ways, Mathematics has a special relationship with Philosophy. This is directly due to the position of
Logic, of
Reasoning, which has traditionally been considered a major branch of Philosophy. Mathematics is a most rigorous, rule-governed type of Logic, and has always been cited as the paradigmatic example of what Logic can do. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Logic made great advances, and Mathematics was proven to be reducible to Logic, in terms of
First-Order Predicate Calculus and
Set Theory. The use of formal,
Mathematical Logic in Philosophy now closely resembles the use of Math in Science, and attracts a very different philosopher than those in Ethics or Aesthetics.
Theology and Religious Studies: Like much of Philosophy, religious reasoning is not experimental. Parts of Theology, including questions about the existence and nature of God or Gods, clearly overlap with
Philosophy of Religion. In fact,
Aristotle considered
Theology a branch of
Metaphysics, the central field of Philosophy, and most philosophers prior to the twentieth century have devoted significant effort to theological questions. Yet, other part of
Religious Studies, such as the comparison of different World
Religions, can be easily distinguished from Philosophy in just the way that the
Social Sciences can be distinguished from Philosophy. These are closer to
History and
Sociology, and involve specific observations of particular
phenomena. In Theology, particular religious practices are the focus.
Religion now plays a more marginal role in Philosophy, and both
Empiricists and
Rationalists (in
Modern Philosophy) often held that religious questions were beyond the scope of human
Knowledge. Many have claimed religious language is itself
literally meaningless, questions which
cannot be answered. Some philosophers have argued these difficulties are evidence that religious beliefs are are closely related to moral and ethical questions, while others have argued the two were very separate.
See Also
External Links
Some content adapted from the Wikinfo article "Western_philosophy" under the GNU Free Documentation License.
(last updated by Proteus, 1:12pm EDT - Mon, Sep 22 2008)
