Very briefly, philosophy might be regarded as a conceptual enquiry dealing with fundamental issues relating to life, knowledge and values. By conceptual enquiry we mean an enquiry that relies primarily on critical reasoning. This includes :
Analysing the meaning of concepts
Identifying logical connections between theories
Evaluating arguments and exposing fallacies
Here is a Chinese newspaper article from MingPao on how philosophy improves critical thinking.
Philosophy and other subjects
According to such a conception of philosophy, philosophy is distinctive in both its method and subject matter. Art or literature might also deal with fundamental issues in life, but the use of critical reasoning is not a necessary part of artistic expression. Critical reasoning of course plays an important role in science, but science is an empirical enquiry into the nature of the world, relying on observations and experiments.
In such respects philosophy is more like mathematics and logic. However, the subject matter of philosophy is more general in that it deals with all sorts of different areas outside mathematics and logic, such as religion and morality.
Although philosophy is different from science, it would be a mistake to conclude that philosophy cannot contribute to the development of science. Philosophers can help scientists clarify the basic concepts in scientific theories, and use their skills in logic to evaluate the strength of evidence supporting or criticizing particular theories. Many sciences (e.g. psychology) originally developed out of philosophy.
What philosophy can do
Why should you study philosophy? If you are busy and don't have the patience or interest to reflect on fundamental issues, then perhaps philosophy is not for you. But for people who are interested in critical reflection, philosophy can be an enjoyable activity.
There are other reasons for doing philosophy apart from pleasure. First, philosophical skills in thinking and writing and help us in describing and understanding theories and ideologies. Here philosophers take up the task of a cartographer, mapping out conceptual terrain and logical structure.
Second, as mentioned earlier, philosophy can be an important tool in helping us acquire knowledge. Logic and critical reasoning are necessary to achieve consistency and in determining the right conclusions to be drawn given our observations and experiences.
Finally, philosophy can also play a transformative role in our lives and social institutions. Through critical reflection on the justification and coherence of the values in social practices and our own actions, we do not just acquire a deeper understanding of our culture and of who we are.
Philosophy questions many ideas or statements. For example, the Examined Life asks, does life have meaning? This idea was analyzed, experienced, questioned, discussed and concluded in many different ways. There was a common thread between the Philosophy film, the Apology, our class discussions and the video, Examined life. We often ask ourselves, are we obligated to other people?
The dictionary term and understanding for the word ‘logic’ is “of sound thinking and proof by reasoning” (Merriam-Webster, 2009). Logic is the examination of the methods and doctrine used to determine ‘correct’ from ‘incorrect’ and is used in the structure of an argument. Allied to critical thinking, logic has a place and holds a relationship that reflects the thought process yet; critical thinking has a more diverse standard of questioning relative to developing both intellectual and emotional queries that can better evaluate reason.
Modern sciences have either directly emerged from philosophy or are very closely related to multiple philosophical questions. Understanding philosophy, as well as the way problems are addressed by philosophers, is the key to understanding science as we know it today and in the future. There are as many definitions of philosophy as there are philosophers – perhaps there are even more. Philosophy is said to be the mother of all disciplines. It is also the oldest of all disciplines and has given a rise to modern science, both social and natural conclusions. After three millennia of philosophical discourse and disagreement, it is extremely unlikely that we will reach an exact consensus. My thoughts are that a philosopher is basically a person who engages in the critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge, especially with the intention of improving or reconstituting them; this is otherwise known as the study of philosophy.
The characteristics of a good philosopher are someone who possesses the qualities to use their habits of mind and be able to think on a higher level than most do. Though everyone has their own unique habits of mind, philosophers are trained to think at a level where their habits of mind are stronger, and thus are always looking for, and usually come up with the best solution to questions, or problems posed. Plato is an example of a philosopher; he wrote a book, The Republic, which is a novel outlining the steps in order to become a good philosopher. Plato speaks through Socrates in the book, and Socrates gets involved in many challenging debates and philosophical conversations with people along his journeys, allowing him to strengthen his habits of mind. Philosophers are posed with the challenge of attempting to solve many of life's unanswerable questions. One example would be the question as to whether abortion is right or wrong. Both sides can be argued, pro life or pro choice, and both have sufficient evidence supporting its side. Although it would make sense that the person who’s fully informed on the subject and has the best ability to argue their contention will prevail in the conclusion of the argument, a solution is not usually possible.
...themselves struggling to describe what the actual definition of philosophy. The main problem to describe the philosophy is not because there are a lot of sub-discipline component list. The main problem to describe the meaning of philosophy is when combine all of the sub-discipline to become one discipline. (Rosenberg, 2012). There are four mains classification of philosophy assumption, they are; ontology, epistemology and axiology (McClean, 2012).
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.
Webster defines philosophy as a critical study of fundamental beliefs and the grounds for them. In this philosophy, I will be talking about the three great philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These three philosophers represent the birthplace of Western philosophy.
Philosophy is the study of examining and thinking about questionable ethical problems and/or generally accepted certainties. Philosophy aims at knowledge that combines a variety of academic fields as well as convictions, prejudices and beliefs.
Philosophy is “The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. Socrates is known as one of the greatest philosophers to ever have lived because he studied knowledge, reality, and existence to the point where he constructed a famous method used to find the answer to any problem, no matter the subject. This famous method is one of his greatest works and is known as the Socratic Method. This method involves breaking a problem into a series of questions, consequently the solution is usually found by answering all of the sub questions. He then used this method to examine moral ideas like justice, and began to question Athenian politics. This method later led to create hypothesis and the Scientific Method, which are widely used in modern scienc...
Philosophy is the science of science. Its subject matter is the complete range of scientific phenomena. Its aim is to connect all these into a consistently complete, to dive far into the truths underlying them and to set upon the first principles which shape the basis of scientific certainty. Hence philosophy is certainly drawn into the difficulty of ultimate realities like nature, mutual relation and origin. The word Vedanta is a combination of ‘Veda’ and ‘anta’ which means ‘Veda-end’.
...se to discover the nature of truth and knowledge, finding what is life and its meaning. These philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, and Voltaire were able to express their philosophies and influence the world and its people, not only thanks to literature, but for literature. Aspects such as logic, reasoning and ethical values were ideals which created strive for philosophy, but of course not forgetting the main purpose and core of philosophy, which is curiosity. Curiosity was the reason people started thinking philosophically in the first place and the reason people started reading philosophical literature. These philosophical literatures has led to the world we live in today, teachings and views have influenced our daily decision in the way that it has caused us to reason and determine our values all due to the inclusion of philosophy in literature.
study of basic concepts such as existence and freedom, however, philosophy does extend on to other
many different topics which can be covered under the umbrella of philosophy. Philosophers are supposed
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.
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.