What is Philosophy ?
 

Discuss ....

:winkwink:

It's... no.. when... wait... it's like...

whoa... that's deep.

The love, study, or pursuit of wisdom or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical, the study of all Wisdom at the Source and of all Principle as Creation.

????

English translation please ;-)

you are so true!
i love philosophy...

philo= love of something.. sophy from the greek sophos, meaning wisdom.

:)

Duke

fucked if i know, i googled it :winkwink:

just had the best massage of my life, why don't you give us a topic and we can get all philosophical on it :)

It is the sound that raindrops make when the touch.

there is no philosophy

my senior year of high school they brought in this guy, he was titled as our new principle, not that I took him seriously ever! ... anwyay .... he insisted that all staff members and students call him doctor, not sir or mister or anything but doctor, he would IGNORE YOU....being that he had a doctorate in philosophy....

Im sorry,(wait no im not) but thats no reason to insist that you be refferred to as doctor....especially when your trying to gain respect of your teachers and pupils.... he pissed me off on more than one occasion with his pompous arrogance....had absolutley no place in the school system.....and when he tryed delegating authority he acted like the whole school was 4th grade and below, even the teachers.....philosophy differs to almost everyone in one degree or another....so why and how should ANYONE be deemed a doctor for thinking they know the "right way"



Funk Dat!!!

It is a four syllable word.

It is a required course in college.

To those who love exploration into the meanings and wisdoms of things, it is a worthy pursuit; otherwise, it is boring to those who want to remain twits.

It is the love of wisdom, critical analysis of fundamental assumptions or beliefs.

It is an investigative pursuit of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, and values, based on logical reasoning, rather than empirical methods.

The study of philosophy, however, could become a system of values by which you live your life, it can be that earth shattering.

If a blind,deaf and mute man falls in a forest, do the trees really care ?

:upsidedow

Cogito, ergo sum.

any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

A little story to explain philosophy.

A student was taking a test in philosophy. The teacher wanted them to explain on the paper why the chair she was standing next to does not really exist. The whole class groaned except one student who scribbled his name on the paper and one single line as the answer. He wrote "what chair".
That student got an A.

Lesson over.

The version I heard had the test made up of a single word: Why?

The A went to the student who answered "Why not?"

Nice !!!

:thumbsup

Since it's what I study in university, I'll try and answer the question.

As a starter, though, it is important to know that it is commonly accepted that the meaning of the term is too controversial to accurately define.

Let's begin by looking at the etymology. Of course, the etymology is actually misleading, but it does serve an important purpose. Philosophy stems from the Greek philos and sophos, meaning "love of wisdom". Although that is certainly not its meaning, the term stems fromt the pursuit of wisdom rather than possession of it. The roots of philosophy, therefore, lay in searching for knowledge rather than clinging to dogma.

Western philosophy started with the Ancient Greek natural philosophers, who are by many considered to be the ones who first started trying to examine and analize the world in a rational, critical, fundamental way. They tried to explain the first causes of the phenomena witnessed in nature by applying critical thought, observation and deliberation to them, searching for a coherent whole behind the matter rather than believing in existing dogma and folklore.

Over the ages, philosophers continued this work, seeking to find rational frameworks, fundaments, etc. to see the world in. Their efforts were concentrated on a vast array of subjects, such as ethics, the good life, politics, the human mind, metaphysics, knowledge, ontology, logic, etc.

At the core of philosophical though, however, is a dedication to rigorous application of reason. A philosopher, or at least a good one, will never stop his inquiries somewhere along the line and say "and that's just the way it is". Everything is subject to inquiry and criticism, including the very methods or even possibility of inquiry and criticism. No argument is accepted, or at least should be accepted, without good reason.

Contemporary philosophy can be divided into a number of branches, although these necessarily spill over into eachother:
- ontology (essentially studying the nature of being)
- epistemology (essentially studying the nature and possibility of knowledge)
- metaphysics (the study of first principles, ontology, etc)
- philosophy of science (how science should work and how it does work)
- ethics
- political philosophy (in most cases prescriptive)
- philosophy of mind
- logic and semantics, which are closely related to...
- philosophy of language
- aesthetics
- cultural philosophy
- the history of philosophy
... and I'm undoubtedly forgetting a bunch of important ones.

Philosophy is NOT, however, mysticism, dogma, occultism, personal outlook on life, religion, etc. Although, in some cases, it does touch on these issues (ethics touches on outlook of life, etc).

Essentially, you can probably see philosophy as that science which concerns itself with those things that do not fall into other branches of science and are not purely empirical. Most importantly, it is based on reason, critical though, and the relentless pursuit of strong arguments that can not be determined purely by empirical observations.

Philosophy in action...

Nope, he got an F. He didn't account for his own likely perception of the chair, his own likely hearing of the teacher talking to him, the teacher's likely perception of the chair, the relations of language and meaning between them. I could go on. He could have taken the skeptic route, putting all perception into reasonable doubt, but he would have needed to argue that point.

Furthermore, the teacher actually didn't ask for philosophy, she asked for sophistry (assuming she wasn't a dogmatic Academic skeptic), since she asked for arguments for arguments' sake, rather than a rigorous investigation of the world.

As you can see, philosophy is annoying ;)

:thumbsup

a study that deals more with the questions rather than the answers

I would be interested to hear
some philosophy from webmasters here.

could be interesting to hear! :)

He got an A because it was his perception that was true.

And therein lies the essence of philosophy.

:2 cents:

Systematic analysis and critical examination of fundamental problems such as the nature of reality, mind, perception, self, free will, causation, time and space, and moral judgements.

No. Even if there was no chair, and his perception was correct, he would still have to account for the discrepancies in language and perception, the possibility of a word having meaning without referring to something in the real world, social context, etc.

I'm sorry, but it seems that to you, philosophy is what it is to many people: a pretty word, roughly equivalent to "deep, wise thinking".

That is not what philosophy is, though. For example, the problem of words and meaning without referents has been a major issue in philosophy for centuries.

It's how you play with language and your world..

PHILOSOPHY


The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. What philosophy is, or should be, is itself a philosophical question that philosophers have understood and treated differently through the ages.



:winkwink:

BILL MURRAY: "What did you study?"

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: "Philosophy."

BILL MURRAY: "Yeah, there's a good buck in that racket."

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: "Well, so far it's pro bono."

Lost in Translation, 2003, Focus Features

Philosophy is largely perceptually based.

The kid keeps his "A"

:thumbsup :pimp

Is there any Philosophy books that you can recommend to me?

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

I shit you not.

:winkwink:

let me think about it

Recognition is due the following people, from whom great philosophical thoughts emerged:

Thales: Traditionally considered the first ever western philosopher. None of his writings survive.

SOCRATES: Ancient Greek, changed philosophy from a study of natural science to ethics and politics. Wrote nothing.

PLATO: Ancient Greek, student of Socrates, most influential philosopher of all time. Works: The Republic.

ARISTOTLE: Ancient Greek, student of Plato, second most influential philosopher of all time. Works: The Nichomachean Ethics, The Metaphysics, The Politics.

http://www.elliotcross.com/great.html

a circle jerk :1orglaugh

It's hard to explain the whole deep meaning of philosophy... But I know that "I dont give a damn about it" is really a philosophycal way of life :)

8 characters in search of an exit

Hate to bump up this thread, but you leave me no choice...

Perception, or observation, gives one empirical data. Empirical data, by definition, are the basis for the empirical sciences. Philosophy, in contrast, is primarily non-empirical. It deals with those questions which can not be answered empirically.

Simply put, what you gave was a very good example of what philosophy is not - an empirical science.

The true philosophy of my post was the endless debate it caused.

You're right about that, the debate actually does enter into the realm of philosophy :)

The art of thinking.