Philosophy

From Wikinfo

Philosophy is a word that comes from the Greek language. It means "love of wisdom" or "love and pursuit of wisdom". ^[1] It is composed of two Greek words, philo- meaning "love of, or having strong affinity for" ^[2] and -osophy meaning "knowledge, skill, wisdom" ^[3] The word strongly implies application, it implies more than rote memorization of knowledge, it implies an affinity for the skillful wielding of knowledge. As an example, two people might have the same facts available to them and a similar knowledge base. But one could make a more effective use of knowledge than the other. In this sense it would be appropriate to say the wiser man has a better philosophy.

The question of how to define an idea is itself "philosophical" and is one of the questions philosophers deal with. A historical study of philosophy dates back to Greek times. It is a study which is carried out by observation and experimentation and by logic.

A philosopher might study such concepts as existence, purpose, goodness, knowledge, and beauty, and asks questions such as "What is the purpose of life?", "What is goodness, in general?", and "Is knowledge even possible?".

Getting Started

If you're already interested in studying philosophy, your reason might be to improve the way you live or think somehow, or you simply wish to get acquainted with one of the most ancient areas of human thought. On the other hand, if you don't see what all the fuss is about, it might help to read the motivation to philosophize, which explains what motivates many people to "do philosophy," and get an introduction to philosophical method, which is important to understanding how philosophers think. It might also help to acquaint yourself with some considerations about just what philosophy is.

So, philosophy is a discipline that draws on knowledge that the average educated person has, and it does not make use of experimentation and careful observation, though it may interpret philosophical aspects of experiment and observation. More positively, one might say that philosophy is a discipline that examines the meaning and justification of certain of our most basic, fundamental beliefs, according to a loose set of general methods. But what we might mean by the words "basic, fundamental beliefs"?

"It is the mark of an educated mind
to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it."
- Aristotle

A belief is fundamental if it concerns those aspects of the universe which are most commonly found, which are found everywhere: the universal aspects of things. Philosophy studies, for example, what existence itself is. It also studies value - the goodness of things - in general. Surely in human life we find the relevance of value or goodness everywhere, not just moral goodness, though that might be very important, but even more generally, goodness in the sense of anything that is actually desirable, the sense, for example, in which an apple, a painting, and a person can all be good. (If indeed there is a single sense in which they are all called "good.") Of course, physics and the sciences study some very universal aspects of things, but do so through experiments. Philosophy is about aspects of reality which either cannot be experiments (ie. "Who created God?"), or do not need to be (ie. "What is the basis of Morality?"), because philosophers rely upon logic, which is the basis of experimentation. Philosophy's study of things are 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.

" The journey of a thousand miles
must begin with a single step."
- Lao Zi

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 were what we would now call 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?" is a vexed philosophical question. It is often observed that philosophers are unique in the extent to which they disagree about what their field even is.

Major Areas and Connections

"Science is organized knowledge.
Wisdom is organized life."
- Immanuel Kant

Ontology, a very abstract study on its own, has direct applications into physics, astronomy, logic and computer science.
Applications directly to science, from physics to psychology, can be found in epistemology, which is about how one regulates thoughts of what knowledge, evidence, and justified belief are. Philosophy of science discusses the underpinnings of the scientific method, among other scientific topics. Aesthetics works with art history to help interpret the meaning and usefullness of the Arts.
Ethics, applied ethics, or bioethics, and political philosophy. The political philosophies of John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and John Rawls, of course borrowing from Plato, Aristotle, Augustine or Immanuel Kant have shaped and been used to justify governments and their actions.
Philosophy of education deserves special mention, as well; progressive education as championed by George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, and John Dewey has had a profound impact on educational practices in the United States in the twentieth century, as well as most of the developed world.
Philosophy of law can provide anyone with a deeper understanding of the theoretical, conceptual underpinnings of their field or environment.
Philosophical counseling, a growing profession devoted to applying philosophy, rather than psychology or psychiatry, to the problems of life, especially related to religion and ethics in this century of complex relations.