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| The School of Athens
(1509–1511) by Raphael, depicting famous
classical Greek philosophers in an idealized
setting inspired by ancient Greek architecture. |
Philosophy
Philosophy is a way of thinking about the world, the
universe, and society. It works by asking very basic
questions about the nature of human thought, the nature
of the universe, and the connections between them. The
ideas in philosophy are often general and abstract. But
this does not mean that philosophy is not about the real
world. Ethics, for example, asks about how to be good in
our day to day lives. Metaphysics asks about how the
world works and what it is made of.
Sometimes people talk about how they have a ‘personal
philosophy’, which means the way a person thinks about
the world. This article is not about people's ’personal
philosophies’. This article is about the ideas that have
been discussed by philosophers (people who think and
write about ways of thinking) for a long time.
One philosophical question is this: "Is there any
knowledge in the world which is so certain that no
reasonable man could doubt it?". Other questions asked
by philosophers are these: |
- What is good?
- What is beauty?
- Do we have free will?
- Does God exist?
- Does the world around us exist?
- What is a person?
- What is truth?
- What is evil?
- What is the relationship between
mind and body?
- What is science?
- What is philosophy?
- What is love?
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History
The word "philosophy" comes from two Greek words,
meaning "love of wisdom". φίλος (philos) adj. "beloved"
+ σοφία (sophia) fem. noun "wisdom".
There are different types of philosophy from different
times and places. Some philosophers came from Ancient
Greece, such as Plato and Aristotle. Others came from
Asia, such as Confucius or Buddha. Some philosophers are
from the Middle Ages in Europe, such as William of
Ockham or Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Philosophers from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s included
Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, John Locke, David Hume,
and Immanuel Kant. Philosophers from the 1900s included
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Areas of inquiry
Philosophy is the study of humans and the world by
thinking and asking questions. It is a science and an
art. Philosophy tries to answer important questions by
coming up with answers about real things and asking
"why?"
Sometimes, philosophy tries to answer the same questions
as religion and science. Philosophers do not all give
the same answers to question. Many types of philosophy
criticize or even attack the beliefs of science and
religion.
In his work Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant asked
the following questions: |
- What can I say?
- What shall I do?
- What dare I hope?
- What is man?
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The answers to these questions gives the different domains
or categories of philosophy. |
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Categories in philosophy
Philosophy can be divided into different groups, based
on the types of questions that it asks. Below is a list
of questions split into groups. One possible list of
answers to these questions can be called a 'philosophy'.
There are many different 'philosophies', because all of
these questions have many different answers according to
different people. Not all philosophies ask the same
questions. These are the questions that are usually
asked by philosophers from the Western world:
Metaphysics:
Metaphysics is sometimes split up into ontology (the
philosophy of real life and living things), the
philosophy of mind and the philosophy of religion; but
these sub-branches are very close together.
Ontology: |
- What is the world that we see around
us? (What is reality?)
- Is there more to the world than just
what we see or hear?
- If nobody sees something happening,
does that mean that it did not happen?
- What does it mean to say that
something is possible? Do other worlds exist?
- Is there anything very special about
being a human being or being alive at all?
- If not, why do some people think
that there is?
- What is space? What is time?
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The philosophy of mind: |
- What is a mind?
- What is a body?
- What is consciousness?
- Do people make choices, or can they
only choose to do one thing? (Do people have free will?)
- What makes words or ideas
meaningful? (What is the relation between meaningful
words or ideas and the things that they mean?)
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The philosophy of religion: |
- Do people have souls?
- Is there a God who created the
Universe?
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In epistemology: |
- What is knowledge?
- How can we know anything?
- What is science?
- What is truth?
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In ethics: |
- What are right and wrong, good and
bad?
- Should people do some things and not
others?
- What is justice?
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In aesthetics: |
- What is beauty? What if one person
thinks a painting is beautiful, but another person
thinks the painting is ugly? Can the painting be
beautiful and ugly at the same time?
- Are true things beautiful?
- Are good things beautiful?
- What is art? We commonly think that
a sculpture in a museum is art. If a sculptor sculpts a
sculpture of a rock from clay, and puts it in a museum,
many would call it art. But what if a person picks up a
rock from the ground - is the rock a piece of art?
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In logic: |
- What do the words we use mean?
- How can we say things (especially
ideas) in a way that only has one meaning?
- Can all ideas be expressed using
language?
- How does the truth of an argument's
premise affect the truth of its conclusion?
- How can we reason correctly?
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In axiology: |
- What has value?
- Is time really money? or have we
made it so?
- Does love, beauty, or justice hold
any value?
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Other divisions include eschatology, teleology and theology.
In past centuries natural science was included in
philosophy, and called "natural philosophy".
Is philosophy good or bad?
Does philosophy do any good? Very few people would dispute
this. It is easy to argue that philosophy is a good thing,
because it helps people to think more clearly. Philosophy
helps people to understand the world and the way people act
and think. Philosophers believe that asking philosophical
questions is useful because it brings wisdom and helps
people to learn about the world and each other. Some
philosophers might even argue that the question "Is
philosophy good or bad?" is a philosophical question itself.
However, some people think that philosophy is harmful, as
philosophy encourages free-thinking and often questions the
beliefs that others hold. For example, philosophies such as
some existentialist views say that there is no meaning to
life or human existence, except the meaning that we make up
or invent. People from some religions do not agree with the
beliefs of existentialism.
It should be noted that every major science, including
physics, biology, and chemistry are all disciplines that
originally were considered philosophy. As speculation and
analysis about nature became more developed, these subjects
branched away. This is a process that continues even today;
psychology only split in the past century. In our own time,
subjects such as consciousness studies, decision theory, and
applied ethics have increasingly found independence from
philosophy as a whole. Because of this, philosophy seems
useful because it makes new kinds of science.
What philosophers do
Philosophers ask questions about ideas (concepts). They try
to find answers to those questions. Some thinkers find it
very hard to find those words that best describe the ideas
they have. When they find answers to some of these questions
philosophers often have the same problem, that is how to
best tell the answers they found to other people. Depending
on the meaning of the words they use, the answers change.
Some philosophers are full-time thinkers (called academics),
who work for universities or colleges. These philosophers
write books and articles about philosophy and teach classes
about philosophy to university or college students.
Other philosophers are just "hobby" thinkers who think about
philosophy during their free time. A small number of hobby
thinkers have thought so much about philosophy that they are
able to write articles for philosophy magazines. Other
people approach philosophy from another job. For example,
monks, artists, and scientists may think about philosophical
ideas and questions.
Most philosophers work by asking questions and looking for
good definitions (meanings) of words to help them understand
what a question means.
Some philosophers say the only thing needed to answer a
question is to find out what it means. The only thing that
makes philosophical questions (such as those above)
difficult is that people do not really know what they mean.
Ludwig Wittgenstein believed this.
Philosophers often use both real and imaginary examples to
make a point. For example, they may write about a real or
fictional person in order to show what they think a good
person or a bad person is like.
Some philosophers look for the simplest way to answer a
question and say that is probably the right answer. This is
a process called Occam's razor. Others believe that
complicated answers to questions can also be right. For an
example of a philosophical problem, see the God paradox.
Philosophers use logic to solve problems and answer
questions. Logical consistency is a cornerstone of any
acceptable theory. Philosophers who disagree with a theory
will often try to find a logical contradiction in a theory.
If they find a contradiction, this gives them a reason to
reject that theory. If they do not find an inconsistency,
the philosopher might show that the theory leads to a
conclusion which is either unacceptable or ridiculous. This
second approach is usually called reductio ad absurdum. |
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The ancient Greek
philosophers |
- Aristotle
- Epicurus
- Heraclitus
- Plato
- Pythagoras
- Socrates
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