What Is Philosophy
| Philosophy : Philosophy Articles Philosophy, is broadly, the love of wisdom - that is the root of the word from the Greek philo (love) and sophos (wisdom). But this doesn't really take us a great deal to what philosophy actually is. Philosophy is a great many things. But essentially is the study of the world around us. It is the ultimate expression of our inquisitive nature and our curiousity. And since this is what it is, then it can take a great many forms. The major branches of questioning and understanding that we see around us today are all philosophical in their nature, and have split from philosophy - a generalist pursuit - over time. Indeed, chemistry, physics, biology were all labelled together as sciences under the philosophical bracket for a long time, and there is great philosophical interest still in each of these areas. So what does a philosopher ask? What is his/her unique method, if it is unique, of enquiry? The philosopher makes less assumptions than anyone else - in fact in most cases, he makes none at all. Compare this with, say, the scientist: the physicist may ask "where did all the matter around us come from" and seeks to explain it, and hence looks at the Big Bang, the cause of the Big Bang, and possible explanations for the existence of the universe. The chemist seeks to explain the interactions that occur between matter, and the biologist looks at this with respect to living organisms and what life is, in a biological context. The philosopher however makes no such assumptions. Rather, he may ask "is there any matter at all?", "how can we know that there is matter around us?", "is matter of the form it looks like to us?", "is the physical world a reality?" and so on. Whether the matter really is there at all and how we can know is a philosopher's question: he can question the external world, and knowledge of it - epistemology. Philosophical enquiry can stretch across a broad range of topics: these include metaphysics, which is asking fundamental questions (it is above physics) - is there a God or gods and so on. Ethics is the study of right and wrong, how we can know what is right and wrong, and what these concepts could possibly entail, and whether they are absolute or relative concepts. Philosophy of mind is exactly that - it questions our mind which seems to be part of what identifies us uniquely from other animals. Do we really have a mind? How do we know about our minds and others minds; are they the same as ours, or are they different? Is our mind physical or mental, what is the difference between a mind and brain? Other topics include political philosophy, the philosophy of science, logic, the philosophy of language and the history of philosophy, as well as many others that look at issues like feminism, and particular philosophers themselves. It is a fascinating but often frustrating subject to study. Being able to think clearly and logically is a very useful life skill to possess, and philosophy can help train this.
More philosophy adviceFor information on lots of philosophers and a good starting point for a study of the subject, try this site:
 Questions about philosophy:
|
|
Tweet this!
