What is philosophy and why should anyone study it?
We are all doomed without philosophy! Why you may ask. Well the reason why is because philosophy is all around us, but many people fail to notice it. According to the Oxford Dictionaries philosophy is, “The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline” (Philosophy). So, in other terms, philosophy is the way we think about various topics. Philosophy is full of thinking and questioning everything around us, so when we stop thinking and questioning our surroundings, we are doomed.
While reading Alistair Sinclair What is Philosophy, I learned that philosophy in Greek stands for ‘love of wisdom.’ In other terms,
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These three branches help us grasp the concept of philosophy because they all help us understand the bigger picture of philosophy. While there are many reasons to study philosophy, the main reasons that we should study philosophy is so that we can advance our own knowledge, and because philosophy is a part of every one of us. We are naturally curious about our surroundings, and want to understand the true meaning of it. Alistair Sinclair said, “As individuals, we want to be wise than just plain ignorant” (1). We all want to be philosophers because we do not want to be the odd person who is oblivious to our surroundings.
Philosophy can advance both our academic and social knowledge. People who study philosophy have a better understanding that their one view is not always right. Philosophers can take their personal beliefs and compare with others, and being able to find a happy medium between multiple beliefs. As Alistair Sinclair stated, philosophers are open minded and prepared to change their view points (8). Meaning, they are ready to reconsider their view points, if valid points are given.
Philosophy is important in both our social and academic life because, we need to know when to accept defeat and when to collaborate with others to result in the best possible conclusion. It is rare
Metaphysics, Morals, Social, and the Political philosophy's are four major philosophical areas of inquiry. Learning about the historical development of each school of thought, who the main contributors were, and what the primary issues are in each field. Increases the knowledge and understanding of the culture and its philosophy.
Philosophy is one of the most important subjects taught today. Philosophy can teach us things as broad as secrets of the universe and as personal as knowing right from wrong. In the following paragraphs, I will explain each concept, as well as its importance to myself.
According to Merriam-Webster (2016), philosophy is “an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs” (para. 1). Most people have a philosophy that is either a vague, general idea or a distinct guiding principle that is based on beliefs relevant to the individual, to their patients, families, communities, and colleagues. The beliefs that comprise a person’s philosophy influence the choices that person makes. Many base their choice of profession on their beliefs, thereby ensuring that the principles of their career are consistent with their personal expectations. For example, getting a job or taking actions that are inconsistent with someone’s beliefs is one of the causes of stress and burnout. Therefore, it is healthy for individuals to clarify their philosophy to help guide them to make choices and to live a life consistent with their
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 meaning of philosophy is the love of wisdom, questioning everything including ourselves. Philosophizing is about questioning the meaning of life.
Furthermore, I believe philosophy will help me to think critically when tackling challenging conceptual problems from different angles. For example, the original position argument by Rawls exemplifies
Before reading this article, my initial thoughts of philosophy was to be reflective about everyday life and look beyond our mundane activities to find purpose or answer questions such as life’s meaning. In Pojam’s What is Philosophy?, he describes philosophy as the love of wisdom as a result of knowledge from examining the most important parts of reality. Pojam explains a person must use reason, sense of perception, imagination and intuition to analyze and construct arguments and theories. Although most of these skills are used in my other classes, I have not isolated these skills and further hone them to philosophical inquiry. Some observations I noticed is that we would be focusing on many readings and we would have a lot of discussion about
Philosophy is defined by Webster as "Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline" or "Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods." This essay is a general look at those who pursued that intellectual means, those who investigated, even those who reasoned Reason. Because volumes could be written and this is a rather quick, unworthy paper: apologizes.
To begin, it is important to understand and analyze what philosophy is and ultimately what a philosophical question is. Philosophy is a quest after knowledge. Philosophy is the action of thought and analysis, in fact, it is a pretty unique type of
A philosopher is a person who is has learned philosophy and in words by definition I am a philosopher. I started this course not knowing what I would be learning and the simple title of the course was intimidating. I thought, am I going to be capable of understanding what great philosophers once debated? Religion is a huge issue I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to overcome since a lot of philosophers didn’t believe in God. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to separate my idea of life and viewing it as an intellectual philosopher. I thought that every idea wouldn’t have proof and that the only proof we had was the bible. The bible was the only piece of proof that I knew and that everything else wouldn’t be sufficient enough to make me change
The essay "The Value of Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell suggests that many “practical” people view philosophy as rather useless, because these people are – according to Bertrand Russell – operating both with wrong conceptions about the ends of life and wrong conceptions about what goods philosophy strives to achieve. According to Russell the value of philosophy is in what it does for the person who studies it. He makes the point that goods of the mind are as important in life as goods of the body. He says that the main value of philosophy is that it enlarges one’s thoughts, brings one into union with the “not-Self”, and helps us avoid being caught in narrowness as human beings. His main ideas are that philosophy is to be studied to enrich our intellects, diminish our dogmatism, and make us citizens of the universe.
Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the science,
It is normal to underestimate the power of philosophy. It is a social science that has lost influence in the 21st Century because many do not understand how this science can help humans achieve true happiness. Though philosophy is a heavy subject, it is the science with the most results regarding human nature and knowledge. Philosophy offers guidance to understand human behavior as well as to question our presence and our real role in society. It is one of the leading social sciences because many world leaders have tried to grasp it and understand the meaning of it thus showing how important it is to study philosophy. Nevertheless, not only should world leaders study philosophy but also everyone should be aware of the different
This essay is reflection about my understanding from what I have learned during this class about what philosophy is. Philosophy is a broad topic and can be hard to understand. What we learn is class about philosophy defiantly makes me think and makes my brain turn all the time, but so far, my understanding is that philosophy is the study of knowledge. It breaks down what everything is. Examples used in class are chariness, deskness, and the main one sued in class “cupness”.
Philosophy, mother of all sciences, is one of the oldest disciplines known to man. It is an approach wherein man tries to address questions about life, existence, truth, knowledge, and so much more. It is the first attempt to make sense of things we are constantly encountering. Through philosophy, we are able to produce breakthroughs in different aspects of human thinking.