What is philosophy? I'd be into it but need to know....?

Question

I've been reading alot of questions in philosophy lately. WOAH! Deep. I'd be so into it so can anyone give me a short but effective description of Philosophy? Thanks!

Answer 1

It's the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, justice, beauty, validity, mind, and language.

Answer 2

Philosophy is simply pondering questions about human existence.

Questions like

what is knowledge, how can we KNOW something.

This is called epistemology.

What is reality, what is really real?

This is called metaphysics.

What is being, what does it mean to BE?

This is called ontology.

How should one live, what does it mean to have a good life how is the good life realized?

This is called ethics

What is beauty, why do we consider something to be beautiful?

This is called Aesthetics

What does value you mean, how do we determine value?

This is called axiology.

These are the main branches that the great philosophers have built by seeking to answer such question by employing rational thought and methodical reasoning.

Taking into account as much consideration as possible in an attempt to reach a conclusion about these subjects that can be considered objective truth.

A universal.

Interestingly when philosophy demonstrates reliability in an area it ceases to be called philosophy and comes to be known as a science.

Natural philosophy is now the main body of science for instance.

Or philosophy of the mind is now called psychology.

Philosophy is the noble pursuit of humanity in search of truth throughout the ages of recorded history and beyond.

A good place to start reading about this subject would be Socrates Plato and Aristotle.

Answer 3

The critical evaluation of assumptions and arguments.

Answer 4

Philosophy deals with different issues from existence to beauty, although it addresses almost same issues of  religion, politics or mythology it remain different by its reliance on reason.

Answer 5

Great question for a new beginner in Philosophy.

Philosophy? What's that? The word comes from the tow Greek word philo ("love") and sophia ("wisdom"). so philosophy is love of wisdom or knowledge.

If you will go deeper, Philosophy is a set of pursuits which, in various ways and across a range of endeavours, investigates truth, meaning, knowledge, reason, existence and value.

Philosophy has always been concerned with two fundamental questions, one concerning the ultimate nature of reality, the other concerning its value. The questions are linked, in that they supply or at least suggest interpretations of each other. The second underlies all our debates about wether there is a  transcendent source of value in the world, one that specifies goals for us and tell us how we must live and behave.

Hope i see you around more often.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 6

Fighter,

Philos means love of or loving and sophy meaning thought or a system of knowledege. So it simply means "a love and pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.by interlectual means showing moral self discipline."

Answer 7

Philosophy is essentially the attempt to answer questions for which there is, as yet, no answer.

All the other recognised branches of knowledge (like physics, history, botany etc) spun off from philosophy long ago and are no longer part of it.

So what you are left with is the really hard stuff about truth, beauty, existence, consciousness, morality etc - anything that there is no real basis yet for us for having an understanding of.

Eventually, over a long time, some of this will turn into new sciences on their own - while some of it is just plain intractable and will never be resolved. Trouble is, we don't know which is which.

So what philosophers do, with varying degrees of success, is try to understand the questions enough to have some sort of stab at answers that might or might not make sense. Precision is very important, as there's no way of testing your answers except by other people understanding them and responding to them. It is a very sociable subject.

The best conversations and the most fun you can have is to be in a bar with 200 philosophers. I know, I tried it.