Philosophy, even with its ancient history and seemingly remote concern applies to your life and your times, and your world. Philosophy achieves this closeness by being many good things at once. It is enlightening, thought-provoking, life changing, liberating, theoretical, and practical. Philosophy is the most powerful instrument that we have for evaluating the worth of our fundamental beliefs and for changing them for the better. Through philosophy, we exert control over the trajectory of our lives, making major course corrections by reason and reflection. A Greek philosopher by the name of Socrates says, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” He was right, here are so many aspects of life that if not examined will not be understood. In order to fully understand the fundamentals of life, the aspect of life that you should begin understanding should be the background and history of the person who began it all, Socrates. Other features of life that needs to be examined are; How to think philosophically, God and his role in philosophy and Ethics and morality. If these aspects of life are not understood, your life will be limited and unfulfilled. Leaving many things in your life unexamined.
The Greek philosopher Socrates is one of Western civilization’s greatest intellectual heroes. He was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher, credited as on of the founders of western philosophy. For two and a half millennia, Socrates has been inspiring generations by his devotion to philosophical inquiry, his relentless search for wisdom, and his determination to live according to his own high standards. He spent much of his time roaming the streets of Athens, speaking with anyone who would listen. His habit was to ask people seemingly questi...
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...amine it, you will never truly understand it. You have to take the time out to study things such as the Greek philosopher Socrates and what he did for philosophy. Also, take the time to examine the correct way of thinking philosophically and reading philosophy. No matter what your beliefs, understanding God and religion’s role in philosophy can take you far, as well as studying the meaning behind ethics and morality. Philosophy is the most powerful instrument that we have for evaluating the worth of our fundamental beliefs and for changing them for the better. Through philosophy we exert control over the trajectory of our lives, making major course corrections by reason and reflection. If these aspects of life are examine and understood, you will be much less limited and fulfilled. Everyone should life and examined life. An unexamined life is just not worth living.
Philosophy originated from the Greek word “Philosophia” which signify the love for wisdom. It was coin by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras around 500 B.C. It deals with a systematic and critical study of fundamental questions that arise both in everyday’s life and through the practice of other disciplines.
Philosophy is defined by Webster as "Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline" or "Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods." This essay is a general look at those who pursued that intellectual means, those who investigated, even those who reasoned Reason. Because volumes could be written and this is a rather quick, unworthy paper: apologizes.
Philosophy is a very important part of people’s lives. Philosophy is quite basically asking inquiries about existence, reality and nature of knowledge. To better understand philosophy we must look throughout history. Looking back through history helps better show what the philosophers thought during the time period in which they lived. The relativity of the theories, to the time period, is a very important factor in how efficient these theories they were. The first philosopher’s ideas to people today would be considered either very basic, or insane. Yet, in the time period they lived in, they were considered to be geniuses. Also, looking back through time and studying philosophers and what they believed can help create a better idea for our own philosophical creations. The first philosophers were also known as the Presocratics. They were called this because they were in a time period before Socrates was born. They mainly focused on answering what is the explanation of nature, also referred to as metaphysics. Even before the Presocratic philosophers, we need to look at the ancient Greek poets that created myths and examine how their stories came into being made and how it had an effect on their civilization. These myths are a part of Philosophy because they were the first ideas about creation. The transition between these mythic worldviews and pre-Socratic philosophers’ worldview was important because it lays down the structural work for great philosophers to learn from them and develop further theories based on their findings.
''The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions: How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? How can we answer these questions? And most important, how ought we to live?'' (Gaarder, Jostein 15)
This course has sparked in me a fresh curiosity for the intellectual life. It has brought me to ponder great questions that have been part of human history and the human condition. Examples of such questions include, “Does the human soul exist beyond our bodies,” “Does God exist,” “What is knowledge,” “What kind of world do we live in?” But the question from this course that I take to be the most important, as it dictates how we approach questions such as those, and is supremely relevant to everyday life, is “How should one live their life?” This question is possibly the most essential to the human race, since how we answer this question determines our mindset when answering the commonly asked question, about how philosophy applies to everyday
Throughout Honors Philosophical Explorations, many of the readings and class discussions have transformed the way in which I think of philosophy as a subject, but more importantly how I apply it to my own life. At the onset of this course, I recognized that one’s life philosophy is in a constant state of tension. There are two factors that seem to be at odds with one another that play integral roles in shaping one’s life philosophy. These two factors are commitment to a stance and openness to new ideas. This commitment, by nature, is wholehearted and all-encompassing. If one is committed to a philosophy then it naturally is the lens that shades how we perceive the world around us. However our view of the world must not be so concrete that there
Socrates was a very important philosopher. He usually questioned a lot about traditions, religion and government. One of his ideas, now used at school, is the Socratic Method. This is that a person asks questions to the pupil, and while the pupil responds, the answer is becoming clearer. Socrates did not like to write any books. He always preferred staying at the market talking and questioning people, than staying at home writing books. He was very controversial, an...
When I think of philosophy I think back to my personal beliefs and experiences. Philosophy for me is a term that goes beyond choosing what's right from wrong, philosophy goes deeper that a decision. Philosophy for me is the roots of my being and what determines the way I live my everyday life. Philosophy refers back to the codes I count on to help me handle situations better and find the right path that will bring me happiness within myself.
The term “philosophy” means the love of wisdom, and those that study philosophy attempt to gain knowledge through rationality and reason. 1 Socrates, the father of ancient philosophy, once stated “the unexamined life is not worth living”. This is the most important part of life and it is need to find purpose and value in life. If a person chooses to live their life without examination, their life would lack value and they would be unhappy. They would also be ignorant to the effects of their choices on themselves and the people around them.
Philosophy can be described as a chance for a person to undertake an opportunity to understand themselves, our world and society, and relations between ourselves and one another. Those who are able to study philosophy can find out what is to be human, what kind of person is it good to be, and especially how are we to live a good life. I, myself, have had an opportunity to take a philosophy class and as my time in philosophy is starting to come to a close, I am suddenly realizing how philosophy has changed the aspects and my outlook upon my life.
Philosophy is a well-known term that has different meanings to those who use the word. Frequently, those who are not associated with the study of philosophy use their opinions and beliefs as a basis for an argument and believe that this is a sufficient philosophical discussion. For those who have made a study of philosophy, this meaning is not correct and misses the point of a true philosophical argument. Their approach is one of discipline and logical progression rather than relying on feelings or making arguments based on opinions (“Philosophy Begins with Critical Thinking). Therefore, philosophy can be said to have the dual meaning of a person’s attitude, or thoughts about a particular subject and the opposing view of logical thinking
“The unexamined life is not worth living”-Socrates. This quote is the most accurate explanation I can find to describe the age-old question, “What is Philosophy?” It was when I first heard this quote that philosophy became a subject of interest for me to explore. It intrigued me, and I began to ponder this question internally. When I first read Socrates’ statement it seemed very simplistic but when I actually looked deeper into the meaning of it I began to understand it was actually much more complex. To go through your whole life without looking back, and just taking a moment to reflect on where you were and where you are now, seems pointless to do; since doing this enables your personal growth to solidify within yourself. The same goes for examining the world around you without questioning the way in which it works and why does it work that way. In order for us to truly understand philosophy we must also understand how the world around us works and why, since misunderstanding the world makes us in turn misunderstand life. A more common definition of Philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge or love of knowledge, which I also agree with. As a firm believer in the idea that we should never stop learning, and always continue to accumulate facts and data from our everyday lives even if it seems pointless in the moment, I believe it to be impossible to shape ourselves into knowledgeable people without constant reflection. The love of knowledge is an age-old romance between man and the unknown; a dance that takes place all around the world without ever showing any signs of stopping. Socrates wants us not be a passive existence but to be active and look at the world around us in awe because this world has so much to teach us about life, n...
The word “philosophy” is derived from two roots that are “philo” and “Sophia.” Philo means love whereas Sophia means wisdom. Therefore, philosophy means the love of wisdom. In actual practice, philosophy entails study of, pursuit, and enquiry into wisdom. A good number of great philosophers have referred to philosophy as the art of thinking. Others have only defined it as the systematic study of human feelings and thoughts.
Philosophy as an activity is not simply a way of living like many people have come to believe. It’s a journey, a journey where the philosopher finds them selves constantly thinking. Constantly thinking and questioning authority until you get what you are looking for in a statement. Philosophy in so many ways is similar to trying to look at the inside and outside of a door at once. At first you may think it can’t be done, but then you ask question, which reveal answers and outlets that lead to more question and you realize that there are so many more ways to look at the door, so many more ways to look at the world. So many more ways to look at philosophy. Philosophy as an activity is looking at a door.
Philosophy encompasses almost all different studies regarding different issues in the world. It is one of the broadest body of knowledge that speaks about everything that is connected with life. Like what it gives us, Philosophy has also its own life that evolves and becomes better throughout the time, giving us better ideas in dealing with life.