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Philosophy

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Philosophy can mean the works of major philosophers collectively; it can mean the academic exploration of various questions raised by philosophers; it can also mean a certain critical, creative way of thinking, and none of these meanings can be considered distinctly. Philosophy, in brief, has several connotations in common speech, but this article will focus on philosophy as a field of study.

Philosophers are usually concerned with concepts such as existence or being, morality or goodness, knowledge, truth, and beauty; historically most philosophy has also centred on religious beliefs. They may ask critical questions about the nature of these concepts, questions typically outside the scope of science, and several major works of post-medieval philosophy begin by asking what philosophy itself should or does mean. Asking what philosophy is is itself a philosophical activity, though philosophers are more often motivated by specific questions such as:

  • What is reality, and what things can be described as real? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the nature of thought and thinking? What is it to be a person? What is it to be conscious? Is there a god? Questions of this type are traditionally labelled metaphysical in the West.
  • Is knowledge possible? How do we come to know what we know? How can we know that there are other minds? Questions of this type are traditionally labelled epistemological in the West.
  • Is there a difference between morally right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Are values absolute, or relative? In general or particular terms, how should I live? Questions of this type are traditionally labelled ethical in the West.

There are no clear boundaries between these labels, which are a legacy of Ancient Greek philosophy. Eastern philosophy and recent continental philosophy usually approach philosophy differently, without relying on these labels, though they may address the same questions with equal rigour.

Philosophy: Motives, Goals and Methods

The word "philosophy" is derived from the ancient Greek philosophia which roughly means "love of wisdom". It suggests a vocation for questioning, learning, and spreading knowledge. Many philosophers are curious about the world, humanity, existence, values, understanding, and the nature of things.

Philosophy can be distinguished from other disciplines by its methods of inquiry. Philosophers often frame their questions as problems or puzzles, in order to give clear examples of their doubts about a subject they find interesting, wonderful or confusing. Often these questions are about the assumptions behind a belief, or about methods by which people reason.

Philosophers then attempt to answer these doubts. Philosophers typicaly frame problems in a logical manner, using syllogisms, and then work towards a solution based on critical reading and reasoning. Like Socrates, they search for answers through discussion, or by responding to the arguments of others, or through careful personal contemplation. Philosophers debate these methods, asking whether "solving" a philosophical problem is like answering a question in the natural sciences: whether or not, for example, philosophical "solutions" are objective, definitive, and say something informative about reality; or rather whether these solutions just give more clarity or insight on the logic of our language, or even act as personal therapy. Philosophers seek justification for the answers to thier questions.

Language is the philosopher’s primary tool. In the Analytic tradition, debates about philosophical method have been closely connected to debates about the relationship between philosophy and language. There is a similar concern in Continental philosophy. Meta-philosophy, the "philosophy of philosophy", studies the nature of philosophical problems, philosophical solutions, and the proper method for getting from one to another (cf. Pataphysics). These debates are also connected to debates over language and interpretation.

These debates are not less relevant to philosophy as a whole, since the nature and role of philosophy itself has always been an essential part of philosophical deliberations. On the contrary, the existence of fields like Pataphysics, indicates a lengthy debate beyond the scope of this article. Such questions are discussed at more length elsewhere.

Non-academic uses of the word

Popularly, the word philosophy is often used to mean any form of assimilated knowledge, or any person's perspective on life (as in "philosophy of life") or basic principles behind or method of achieving something (as in "my philosophy about driving on highways"). This is also commonly referred to as a worldview.

To take another example, reacting to a tragedy philosophically might mean abstaining from passionate reactions in favour of intellectualized detachment. That particular definition arose from the example of Socrates, who calmly discussed the nature of the soul with his followers before consuming the hemlock used to execute him on the orders of an Athenian jury. The Stoics followed Socrates in seeking freedom from their passions, hence the modern use of stoic to refer to calm fortitude.

Western and non-Western Philosophical traditions

Members of many societies around the world have considered the same questions, and built philosophic traditions based upon each other's works. Philosophy may be broadly divided into various realms based loosely on geography.

The term "philosophy" alone in a Euro-American academic context can misleadingly refer solely to the philosophic traditions of Western civilization, sometimes also called Western philosophy. Additionally, Western applications of the term over the past century also frequently reveal a bias towards either Continental Philosophy or Analytic philosophy. In the West, the term "Eastern philosophy" broadly subsumes the philosophic traditions of Asia or other areas considered "Eastern". This conventional bifurcation is problematic. Russian, Jewish or Islamic philosophical traditions that have contributed to, or been derivative of Western philosophy, yet retain a unique identity, are often either subsumed under the latter and given scant attention, or ignored in a majority of synoptic courses and studies. Other philosophical traditions, such as in Africa, are rarely considered in foreign academia. Languages can also be a barrier, and the question of what and whether specific languages can be considered essential to philosophizing is also a theme in the works of Heidegger and Derrida.

For numerous political and other reasons, non-Western traditions of philosophy sooner or later fell into decline, and emphasis on Western philosophy, consistent with the strong international presence of Anglo-American popular culture, is a dominant trend around the globe. The study, preservation and dissemination of valuable non-Western philosophical works faces many more obstacles in the future than Western philosophy.

Western Philosophy

The Western philosophic tradition began with the Greeks and continues to the present day. Famous Western philosophers include Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Michel de Montaigne, René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, George Berkeley, John Locke, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Henri Bergson, Edmund Husserl, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Theodor Adorno, Jacques Derrida and Willard van Orman Quine.

Western philosophy is sometimes divided into several branches for study, based on the questions addressed by people working in different parts of the field. The most common categories are metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics. Some of the other disciplines include: axiology, logic, the philosophy of mind. For more information, see Western Philosophy.

Eastern Philosophy

Eastern philosophy follows the broad traditions that originated from or were popular within ancient India and China. Famous Eastern philosophers include Gautama Buddha, Nagarjuna, Confucius, Lao Zi (Lao Tzu), Zhuang Zi (Chuang Tzu), Mencius, Xun Zi, Zhu Xi, Sankara , Ramana Maharshi, Ramanuja and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Some branches of ancient Eastern philosophy use categories comparable to those in Western philosophy, but have different names for them depending on the lineage; for instance, the Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy also explores logic as some Analytyic philosophers do. For more information on Eastern philosophies, see Eastern philosophy.

Other philosophical traditions are linked below.

Applied philosophy

Though often seen as a wholly abstract field, philosophy is not without practical applications. The most obvious applications are those in ethics -- applied ethics in particular -- and in political philosophy. The political philosophies of Confucius, Sun Tzu, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, and John Rawls have shaped and been used to justify governments and their actions.

Philosophy of education deserves special mention, as well; progressive education as championed by John Dewey has had a profound impact on educational practices in the United States in the twentieth century. It could be argued that some New Age philosophies, such as the "Celestine Prophecy", inadvertantly educate people about human psychology and power relationships through the use of spiritual metaphor.

Other important applications can be found in epistemology, which might help one to regulate one's notions of what knowledge, evidence, and justified belief are. Two useful ways that epistemology and logic can inform the real world are through the fields of journalism and police investigation. Informal logic has fantastic applications, helping citizens to be critical in reading rhetoric and in everyday discussion. Philosophy of science discusses the underpinnings of the scientific method. Aesthetics can help to interpret discussions of art. Even ontology, surely the most abstract and least practical-seeming branch of philosophy, has had important consequences for logic and computer science.

In general, the various "philosophies of," such as philosophy of law, can provide workers in their respective fields with a deeper understanding of the theoretical or conceptual underpinnings of their fields.

Moreover, a burgeoning profession devoted to applying philosophy to the problems of ordinary life has recently developed, called philosophical counseling. Moreover, many Eastern philosophies can and do inadvertantly help millions of people with anxiety problems through their emphasis on meditation, calm, and the connection between the health of the body and the health of the soul.

Some tentative generalizations about what philosophy is

Although Greek philosophy once included the sciences, contemporary philosophy does not make use of consistent, systematic experimentation and observation, though it may interpret philosophical aspects of the same. One might say philosophy is a discipline that critically examines fundamental, abstract beliefs and values, according to a loose set of general methods. By "fundamental, abstract beliefs and values" one generally refers to universal traits such as existence, or to common and long-standing perspectives which large sections of society have applied in daily life, whether to specific fields like economics, or the more general one of merely living.

Of course, physics and other sciences also study universal aspects of things; but they do so through consistent, systematic experimentation. Philosophy studies those aspects that can be studied without such an apparatus, aspects that may initially seem too general or abstract to merit attention. For instance, philosophers may ask what makes the "objectness" of an object, as distinguished from the constitution of objects, their properties and relations to other objects, and perhaps also as distinguished from minds or souls, and attempt to answer their own questions without making use of any prior scientific knowledge; physicists, on the other hand, would proceed with or dismiss such a question by resorting to an agreed, consistent and verifiable approach and notion of objects.

How to get started in philosophy

It is a common platitude that "everybody has a philosophy, though they might not all realize it or be able to defend it". Yet "philosophy" as it is frequently used by notable philosophers is nothing like what is meant by people who say "here's my philosophy of life..." The distinction between popular and academic opinion is a starting point for many.

If you're already interested in studying philosophy, your reason might be to improve the way you live or think somehow, or you simply wish to get acquainted with one of the most ancient areas of human thought. On the other hand, if you don't see what all the fuss is about, it might help to read the motivation to philosophize, which explains what motivates many people to "do philosophy," and get an introduction to philosophical method, which is important to understanding how philosophers think. It might also help to acquaint yourself with some considerations about just what philosophy is.

Those who are new to the study of philosophy are advised to look at the articles on logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, epistemology, philosophy of science, ethics, and political philosophy as the individual treatment of these subjects are commonly used as an introduction in Western academia. Alternately one may simply study the works of major philosophers from various periods and places with the help of several guides and discussions.

People who are inclined to study philosophy with others may wish to seek out organizations such as the non-profit Society for Philosophical Inquiry.

See also

Quotations

"Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it … or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings—that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. - Gautama Buddha (attributed)

"Science is what we know and philosophy is what we don't know." - Bertrand Russell

"What is your aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Philosophy is the peculiarly stubborn attempt to think clearly." - William James

"Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing." - Ambrose Bierce

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point, however, is to change it." - Karl Marx

Bibliography

Introductions

For beginners

  • Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Edward Craig
  • The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy (2nd Edition) by Jay Stevenson
  • Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
  • Philosophy Now magazine
  • Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy by Robert C. Solomon
  • A Short History of Philosophy by Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen M. Higgins

Topical introductions

  • A Short History of Modern Philosophy by Roger Scruton
  • World Philosophies by Ninian Smart
  • Indian Philosophy: a Very Short Introduction by Sue Hamilton
  • A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy by Oliver Leaman
  • Eastern Philosophy For Beginners by Jim Powell, Joe Lee
  • An Introduction to African Philosophy by Samuel Oluoch Imbo
  • Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev by Frederick Copleston
  • Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Simon Critchley
  • Complete Idiot's Guide to Eastern Philosophy by Jay Stevenson
  • Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts by Joel J. Kupperman

Anthologies

  • Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida (4th Edition) by Forrest E. Baird
  • Classics of Philosophy (Vols. 1 & 2, 2nd edition) by Louis P. Pojman
  • Classics of Philosophy: The 20th Century (Vol. 3) by Louis P. Pojman
  • The English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill by Edwin Arthur Burtt
  • European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche by Monroe Beardsley
  • Contemporary Analytic Philosophy: Core Readings by James Baillie
  • Existentialism: Basic Writings (Second Edition) by Charles Guignon, Derk Pereboom
  • The Phenomenology Reader by Dermot Moran, Timothy Mooney
  • Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings edited by Muhammad Ali Khalidi
  • A Source Book in Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Charles A. Moore
  • A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy by Wing-Tsit Chan

Reference works

  • The Oxford Companion to Philosophy edited by Ted Honderich
  • The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy by Robert Audi
  • The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (10 vols.) edited by Edward Craig, Luciano Floridi (also available online by subscription); or
  • The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy edited by Edward Craig (an abridgement)
  • Routledge History of Philosophy (10 vols.) edited by John Marenbon
  • History of Philosophy (9 vols.) by Frederick Copleston
  • A History of Western Philosophy (5 vols.) by W. T. Jones
  • Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophies (8 vols.), edited by Karl H. Potter et al (first 6 volumes out of print)
  • Indian Philosophy (2 vols.) by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
  • A History of Indian Philosophy (5 vols.) by Surendranath Dasgupta
  • History of Chinese Philosophy (2 vols.) by Fung Yu-lan, Derk Bodde
  • Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy edited by Antonio S. Cua
  • Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Kurt Friedrichs
  • Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy by Brian Carr, Indira Mahalingam
  • A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English by John A. Grimes
  • History of Islamic Philosophy edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Oliver Leaman
  • History of Jewish Philosophy edited by Daniel H. Frank, Oliver Leaman
  • A History of Russian Philosophy: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries by Valerii Aleksandrovich Kuvakin

External Links

Some of these websites contain links to online texts of philosophy, as do many related articles on Misplaced Pages.

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