What is philosophy?

Question

It sounds stupid, but I just want to know what it is. I heard that Emma Watson is going to study philosophy at university and I would like to know what the subject would cover. What is philosophy?

Answer 1

PHILOSOPHY -

Critical examination of the rational grounds of our most fundamental beliefs and logical analysis of the basic concepts employed in the expression of such beliefs. Philosophy may also be defined as reflection on the varieties of human experience, or as the rational, methodical, and systematic consideration of the topics that are of greatest concern to humanity. Philosophical inquiry is a central element in the intellectual history of many civilizations. Difficulty in achieving a consensus about the definition of the discipline partly reflects the fact that philosophers have frequently come to it from different fields and have preferred to reflect on different areas of experience. All the world's great religions have produced significant allied philosophical schools. Western philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, George Berkeley, and Søren Kierkegaard regarded philosophy as a means of defending religion and dispelling the antireligious errors of materialism and rationalism. Pythagoras, René Descartes, and Bertrand Russell, among others, were primarily mathematicians whose views of reality and knowledge were influenced by mathematics. Figures such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Stuart Mill were mainly concerned with political philosophy, whereas Socrates and Plato were occupied chiefly by questions in ethics. The Pre-Socratics, Francis Bacon, and Alfred North Whitehead, among many others, started from an interest in the physical composition of the natural world. Other philosophical fields include aesthetics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophical anthropology. See also analytic philosophy; Continental philosophy; feminist philosophy; philosophy of science.-

Answer 2

Russell has a sturdy quote in this: We would be conscious one strange function of philosophy. If somebody asks the question what's arithmetic, we can supply him a dictionary definition, enable us to declare the technological know-how of form, for the sake of argument. so far because it is going this is an uncontroversial fact... Definitions would settle for in this way of any field the place a physique of confident expertise exists. yet philosophy would be unable to be so defined. Any definition is debatable and already embodies a philosophic suggestions-set. the only thank you to be sure what philosophy is, is to do philosophy. —Bertrand Russell, The information of the West

Answer 3

Philosophy is a concept of thought that tackles all the big questions about everything. It asks questions about the world we live in, the way we perceive it, the study of our selves emotionally, intellectually, socially. It is a fascinating subject and even if it is something you don't want to major in exclusively I'd highly recommend taking a few introductory courses.

Answer 4

there isn't just a simple answer to this question and hardly anyone agrees on a strict definition. the way that i would explain it is that its rationally or analytically questioning all kinds of different aspects of life. and answers cannot be answered through experiment or observations, but its not faith, like religious studies. answers are collected through reason, or a break down of norms etc. any time you question something as simple as "why am i the way i am?", you're philosophizing. check out the following link. its pretty good for explaining philosophy as an intro. http://www.objectivistcenter.org/cth-32-409-FAQ_Philosophy.aspx

Answer 5

Here is an answer to your question, What Is Philosophy?

Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, (Professor of Philosophy - Hardy Professor of Legal Studies, Ph.D.,
Yale University, 1982) -- answered this question on a website some time ago.

Because Philosophy is a complex subject, this is a sort of long, complex answer. Hope it helps:

What is Philosophy?

Philosophy's goal is nothing less than a systematic world view. Other fields study particular kinds of things. Philosophy asks how it all fits together. For example, if you want to learn about bodies, take a course in physics or biology. If you want to learn about minds, take a course in psychology. But if you want to learn about how minds are related to bodies, or how physics is related to psychology, then philosophy (of mind) is for you. Similarly, economics, political science, and art and music courses study different values (welfare, justice, and beauty). Then moral philosophers ask how these values are similar or different, when one may be traded off against another, and where any of these values fit into the physical world. Again, historians try to discover knowledge of the past and astronomers try to discover knowledge of stars and planets, but only philosophers ask what makes any of these beliefs knowledge, and how (or whether) we can have any knowledge at all. Such philosophical questions are very abstract, but that is what enables them to cover so many different fields at once.

Many philosophers employ empirical discoveries in psychology, biology, and physics to illuminate traditional philosophical issues. (Can our moral beliefs be understood as a product of evolution?) Others use formal developments in logic and mathematics. (Does the incompleteness of arithmetic, proven by Gödel, show that computers cannot think in the way humans do?) Still others turn to literature and first-person narratives to express their ideas. (Is the position of oppressed groups best understood by listening to their own stories?) Since it is puzzling how the abstract world of numbers or the lived world of personal experience is related to the physical world of subatomic particles, the variety of methods used by philosophers reflects the issues that must be faced in formulating a coherent overall world view.

One feature is shared by almost all methods used by philosophers: Philosophers question authorities. Whereas legislators or judges have the authority to declare what the law is, and specific texts determine what is required by some religions, philosophers do not grant any special authority to anyone or anything. Every claim, no matter where it comes from, is subject to scrutiny. Even common sense is not taken for granted, which leads philosophers to put forward some very weird views.

In place of authorities, philosophers try to justify their views with arguments. Indeed, philosophers love arguments. One of the earliest examples of philosophy was an argument by Zeno, which runs like this: "The slow runner [a tortoise] will never be overtaken by the swiftest [Achilles], for it is necessary that the pursuer should first reach the point from which the pursued started, so that necessarily, the slower is always somewhat in advance." If you think about it for a while, Zeno's argument should be clear. What is not clear is how to respond. One popular reaction is, "That's silly. Of course, Achilles can overtake a tortoise. It happens all the time." Philosophers retort, "Everybody assumes that Achilles can overtake the tortoise, and it does appear that swift runners overtake slow runners, but how do you know what is really going on? And what is wrong with Zeno's argument to the contrary? You cannot reject the argument just because you don't like the conclusion." In such debates, philosophers try to uncover our basic assumptions, evaluate our reasons (if any) for these assumptions, and speculate on what our world view would be like if we gave up those assumptions. This process can be liberating and fascinating, even when (or maybe because) it leads to results that seem hard to believe.

Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Answer 6

Philosophy means two things - to think clearly which is metaphysics and to rule wisely which is politics.

Specifically philosophy means and includes the five fields of study and discourse: logic, esthetics, ethics, politics and metaphysics. Logic is the study of the ideal method in thought and research: observation and introspection, deduction and induction, hypothesis and experiment , analysis and synthesis - such are the forms of human activity which logic tries to understand and guide.

Hope i help you in your question. Thanks for the question. It is very important to know philosophy.

Answer 7

Philosophy is study about religion, law, biology, economics, physics, maths,computers, psychology art, music & so on.
Actual meaning is --Love for wisdom. & also deals with existance of mankind

Answer 8

Metaphysics (the theory of reality).
Epistemology (the theory of knowledge)
Ethics (the theory of moral values)
Politics (the theory of legal rights and government)
Aesthetics (the theory of the nature of art)

The most widespread systems of ideas that offer philosophical guidance are religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Religions differ from philosophies not in the subjects they address, but in the method they use to address them. Religions have their basis in mythic stories that pre-date the discovery of explicitly rational methods of inquiry. Many religions nowadays appeal to mystical faith and revelation—modes of belief that claim validity independent of logic and the scientific method, at least for the biggest questions. But most religions are in their origins pre-rational rather than anti-rational, a story-teller's account of philosophic issues rather than a scientist's.

In Greek, "philosophy" means "love of wisdom." Philosophy is based on rational argument and appeal to facts. The history of the modern sciences begins with philosophical inquiries, and the scientific method of experimentation and proof remains an instance of the general approach that a philosopher tries to bring to a question: one that is logical and rigorous. However, while today the sciences focus on specialized inquiries in restricted domains, the questions addressed by philosophy remain the most general and most basic, the issues that underlie the sciences and stand at the base of a world-view.

Philosophy raises some of the deepest and widest questions there are. Addressing the issues in each branch of philosophy requires integrating everything one knows about reality (metaphysics) or humanity (epistemology, ethics, politics, and aesthetics). Proposing reasonable positions in philosophy is therefore a difficult task. Honest philosophers have often disagreed about key issues, and dishonest ones have been able to slip their own positions into the mix as well. For this reason, there is not one philosophy worldwide, as there is one physics. Instead, there are many philosophies.

Over the course of history, philosophers have offered entire systems that pulled together positions in each of the branches of philosophy. Aristotle, the father of logic, authored such a system in ancient times, teaching that we could know reality and achieve happiness. In more modern times, philosophers such as John Locke and Immanuel Kant have written systematic accounts of their thought. Most modern philosophers, however, have specialized in one area or another within philosophy, although some schools of philosophy have emerged that are marked by the general positions of their members on a variety of issues and the members' shared admiration for a chain of historical figures. These schools have included Pragmatism, Logical Positivism, and Existentialism, but are little-known outside of university classes in modern philosophy.

Today philosophic issues often enter public life through political or social movements, some religious in inspiration, such as Christian conservatism, and others secular, such as left-wing environmentalism and socialism. The ideas of such movements are often called ideologies. That term, "ideology," is another name for the systems of ideas we have been talking about. Though the focus of ideological movements is political, their political beliefs tend to be rooted in shared conceptions of reality, human nature, and values.

Answer 9

May be a set of knowledges about ration or the pursuit for smart.

Answer 10

Friend,

I think it is that science which opens your inner eye and make you understand the entire universe in the absolute truthful way.

It will make you understand and realise what you are.