What is Philosophy?

by Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong Well, what do you think philosophy is? Most people can't answer this question. It's too abstract. It's also controversial. Philosophers themselves can't agree on any answer. Sure, the name "philosophy" derives from the Greek for "love of wisdom", but what's that? There has been a long and glorious history of people called philosophers, but they talk about all kinds of topics in all kinds of ways. It is not clear what, if anything, they have in common that makes them all philosophers. Still, though many philosophers would dispute what I say, I will give you one model of philosophy. For me, philosophy is defined by a goal and a method. 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. This goal also means that you can study anything under the name of philosophy. Philosophy encompasses subfields called philosophy of religion, of law, of economics, of biology, of physics, of mathematics, of computers, of psychology, of art, of music, of literature, and so on. Any and all of these topics can be studied in a philosophical way when one asks how they are related to each other in an overall world view. When such disparate topics are raised, conflicts and paradoxes are bound to arise. One famous example is the paradox of freedom: Science, including psychology, leads us to believe that (1) Every act is determined by a prior cause. Law and common practices of blaming and punishing wrongdoers then lead us to believe that (2) Some acts are free. But the very definition of "free" suggests that (3) Nothing that is determined is free. Unfortunately, (1)-(3) cannot all be true, so any world view that includes all three of these claims is incoherent. Paradoxes like this are both loved and hated by philosophers. Philosophers love them for their stimulation but hate them for their incoherence, so philosophers try hard to get rid of paradoxes. One prevalent way to resolve paradoxes is conceptual analysis. In response to the paradox of freedom, for example, some philosophers try to analyze freedom in a way that makes it compatible with determinism and thereby undermines (3). Other philosophers give accounts of blame and punishment that do not presuppose freedom, so they can reject (2). Still others analyze determinism and causation in ways that cast doubt on (1). One of these claims has to go. Conceptual analysis tries to help us decide which claim to give up. The method of conceptual analysis might sometimes seem picky, but unclarity or imprecision in our concepts is often what leads us into paradoxes and incoherence in our world views. That is why the philosophical goal of a coherent overall world view makes philosophers adopt the method of conceptual analysis. Philosophers use other methods as well. 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 Gdel, 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. In seeking this goal through these methods, philosophers address a wide variety of problems, which can be classified into three main areas: Metaphysics or the theory of existence addresses the questions of whether God exists, whether we have free will, how our minds are related to our bodies, what reality is, and so on. Epistemology or the theory of knowledge asks whether and how we can know or be justified in believing anything; and it also investigates particular areas or sources of (supposed) knowledge, such as perception, memory, and science. Ethics or moral philosophy studies which acts are morally right or wrong and which people or character traits are morally good or bad; then other values, such as beauty, are studied in other areas of value theory, such as aesthetics. Some of the most exciting philosophical issues (such as those raised by existentialists, phenomenologists, feminists, and philosophers of language) do not fit neatly under any of these traditional categories. True philosophers will not rest until they combine theories about all of these various topics into a single coherent system of thought that is justified without appeal to authority. Because this ideal is so demanding, the process of doing philosophy can be frustrating, but it is also something that can fill and fulfill one's entire life. Source: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~phil/whatis/wsa.html

What is Philosophy?
Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to lifes most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study.

Metaphysics: At its core the study of metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality, of what exists in the world, what it is like, and how it is ordered. In metaphysics philosophers wrestle with such questions as:

Is there a God? What is truth? What is a person? What makes a person the same through time? Is the world strictly composed of matter? Do people have minds? If so, how is the mind related to the body? Do people have free wills? What is it for one event to cause another?

Epistemology: Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It is primarily concerned with what we can know about the world and how we can know it. Typical questions of concern in epistemology are:

What is knowledge? Do we know anything at all? How do we know what we know? Can we be justified in claiming to know certain things?

Ethics: The study of ethics often concerns what we ought to do and what it would be best to do. In struggling with this issue, larger questions about what is good and right arise. So, the ethicist attempts to answer such questions as:

What is good? What makes actions or people good? What is right? What makes actions right? Is morality objective or subjective? How should I treat others?

Logic: Another important aspect of the study of philosophy is the arguments or reasons given for peoples answers to these questions. To this end philosophers employ logic to study the nature and structure of arguments. Logicians ask such questions as:

What constitutes "good" or "bad" reasoning? How do we determine whether a given piece of reasoning is good or bad?

History of Philosophy: The study of philosophy involves not only forming ones own answers to such questions, but also seeking to understand the way in which people have answered such questions in the past. So, a significant part of philosophy is its history, a history of answers and arguments about these very questions. In studying the history of philosophy one explores the ideas of such historical figures as:

Plato Aristotle Aquinas Descartes Locke Hume

Kant Nietzsche Marx Mill Wittgenstein Sartre

What often motivates the study of philosophy is not merely the answers or arguments themselves but whether or not the arguments are good and the answers are true. Moreover, many of the questions and issues in the various areas of philosophy overlap and in some cases even converge. Thus, philosophical questions arise in almost every discipline. This is why philosophy also encompasses such areas as:

Philosophy of Law Philosophy of Religion Philosophy of Mind Political Philosophy Philosophy of History

Philosophy of Feminism Philosophy of Science Philosophy of Literature Philosophy of the Arts Philosophy of Language

Source: http://fsu.edu/~philo/new%20site/sub_category/whatisphilo.htm

What is Philosophy?
What is Philosophy? Answered by William Thomas Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man's relationship to existence. In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible. Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 2) A philosophy is a comprehensive system of ideas about human nature and the nature of the reality we live in. It is a guide for living, because the issues it addresses are basic and pervasive, determining the course we take in life and how we treat other people. The topics that philosophy addresses fall into several distinct fields. Among those of fundamental concern are:

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 revelationmodes 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 worldview. 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. Source: http://objectivistcenter.org/ct-409-FAQ_Philosophy.aspx

Why Does Anyone Need a Philosophy?

Why Does Anyone Need a Philosophy? Answered by William Thomas You have no choice about the necessity to integrate your observations, your experiences, your knowledge into abstract ideas, i.e., into principles. Your only choice is whether these principles are true or false, whether they represent your conscious, rational convictionsor a grab-bag of notions snatched at random, whose sources, validity, and consequences you do not know, notions which, more often than not, you would drop like a hot potato if you knew. Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 5) Everyone has a philosophy, even if we cannot express it in words. We either act as if our eternal salvation depends on following the mandates of scripture, or we don't. We feel the need to believe in something and search for understanding, or we adopt the cynical view that the search is useless. We all have some sense of what is right, and what is wrong. We can see ourselves as noble beings worthy of happiness or as guilty transgressors against the environment, social justice, or God. We will all decide often what it is that constitutes our duty. We think we know art when we see it. And we adopt political principles and support politicians and parties. All of these are philosophical issues. Philosophical convictions are often subconscious or inarticulate. We experience them emotionally in what Ayn Rand called a "sense of life." Your sense of life reflects the fundamental ways you relate to the world and other people; it is your intuitive feeling of how things are and how they ought to be. Each of us needs to understand his own convictions consciously, to be able to put his sense of life into words. Otherwise we don't really have a clear idea of what we believe or what is motivating us to make our biggest decisionsor whether it is true. We need to know what we think on philosophical questions, because our answers can affect the course of our lives. And the sense of life that dominates nations or cultures can determine their fates. We need a metaphysics (a theory of reality) because we need to know whether the material world of daily life is the only one that existswhich makes a difference between living for this life or some heavenly hereafter. We need to know whether the universe is lawful, or chaoticwhich makes a difference between trying to improve things or viewing life as absurd and meaningless.

You take your car to a mechanic because the engine misfires in damp weather. Wouldn't it be strange if he were to shrug and say "Well, cars just do that sometimes?" But what's wrong with that? Why shouldn't you take that attitude to your own problems at home or at work? You need a philosophy to know the answer. An epistemology is a theory of knowledge. It may seem that if you know anything, then you know it, so what's the issue? To have a clear grasp of one's own life and context, one needs to be able to sort out the mass of information, claims, and ideas we receive from others: that skill is based in epistemology. After all, at root, we need to know whether what we believe is really true. How do you know when someone has proven a point? That can be terribly important when the truth of a scientific theory, a doctor's diagnosis, or the outcome of a trial is at stake. Some people say that words are arbitrary and mean whatever we like. Does that mean it doesn't matter if someone uses words he can't define in down-to-earth terms? Should we worry if we don't feel like we have mystic intuitions, or should we worry if we do? A neighbor comes to your door with a petition: pesticides from nearby farms are appearing in trace quantities in the town's drinking water. The neighbor wants them removed at all costs. "Nobody has proven that these chemicals won't ever hurt anyone," he says. But the farmers send around a flyer saying the chemicals have been scientifically tested and are proven to be safe. Both are talking about proof, but they don't seem to mean the same thing by it. How could you tell who is right? You need a philosophy to know the answer. Ethics is the science we use to judge good from evil. We don't want to do evil, and we would like to do good if we can. But to do that, we need to know what it means to be good, and what kind of actions tend to achieve it. People make demands on us: what do we owe to others and what do we deserve for ourselves? To organize our moral views and take the right course in life, we need to avoid being torn apart by contradictory goals and principles. You are working for a company and rising up to positions of greater responsibility. You try to work efficiently and you hope to make a lot of money, both in bonuses for yourself and in profits for the company. But you feel a little uneasy, and you wonder: are you doing good there, or are you just playing the game of life and going with the flow? After all, your religion teaches you that the best people live simply and serve others. Should you feel guilty about trying to make money, or feel morally proud of your success? You need a philosophy to know the answer. We all know about practical politics, because we have to choose whom to vote for, and in which causes to invest our time and money. But though we argue about it, few people take the time to sort out their fundamental convictions about political issues. Is there a conflict between the social good and what's good for individuals? Is society responsible for supporting the poor? For inculcating character and values? For regulating the economy? In part, our ideas will depend on our ethical beliefs, but we also need a clear idea of what government is for and what kinds of activities it should be engaged in, if any. It's election time. One party promises to ensure that every person has a decent job by passing a law setting fair minimum wages and restricting layoffs. The other promises to make sure we are all free, and says we will all be better off in the end even if there are layoffs and wages are set in the labor market. Which one is best? What do political slogans like "fairness" and "freedom" really mean, anyway? You need a philosophy to know the answer. We all spend time and money on art: reading books, attending films and shows, listening to music, and so on. But unless we reflect on aesthetics, we can't understand clearly why we have this need and what it is about art that fulfills it. What is the difference between good art and bad art? Art provides the spiritual fuel we all depend on, and trying to consume it without knowing anything about its basic purpose and the standards of judging it is like trying to run a car on any old liquid. A new object has appeared in front of a prominent building in your city. It consists of slabs of metal arranged to make a large and angular shape. The newspaper says it is a great new piece of art, but you wonder, if that is art, what isn't? What is a piece of sculpture supposed to be like? You need a philosophy to know the answer. People often think of philosophy as a highly abstract and technical field, full of conundrums of interest only to academics. But in fact all of us depend on philosophic conclusions, and identifying one's own philosophy is a highly practical activity.

We don't all need to be philosophers, any more than we all need to be mathematicians. But we all learn to add in school, and we all need to be able to do some basic philosophizing as well. That's how we know where we stand in the world and what we ought to do in life. Source: http://objectivistcenter.org/ct-410-FAQ_Does_Anyone_Need_Philosophy.aspx

Further Suggested Reading: 1) 2) 3) 4) The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee A Short history of Philosophy by Robert Solomon & Kathleen Higgins Introducing Philosophy by Robert Solomon Philosophy: the power of Ideas by Moore & Bruder