What Is Philosophy Free Essays

Most definitions of philosophy have been fairly controversial partly because what has been called philosophy has changed drastically in the course of history. What used to be a part of the philosophical inquiries detached themselves from it. This is why most academic subject began as some aspect as philosophy and branched off into knowledge and became specialized. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is Philosophy or any similar topic only for you Order Now The word philosophy originated from Greek words philia (love) and sophia (wisdom) carrying the meaning love of wisdom. The essential part of being a good philosopher is the faculty of wonder. Philosophy searches for the truth and questioning the unquestionable. Intrinsically it satisfies, or seeks to satisfy, the intellectual desire for comprehensive knowledge and understanding. Philosophers need to be open-minded and never closing door. They have to be accepting and be able to accept changes. A philosopher is curious, reflective and critical. Big philosophical questions like Who is god? , Where does the world come from? , What is life? has remained unanswered. Questions of this genre are asked in every culture, every religion and through every period of time. The quest of philosophy is to answer these questions. Philosophy makes people doubt their beliefs. They make people query their cultural norms and what they have been putting faith into and brought up believing. People who are easily influence might think twice about their beliefs and those who hold true faith in what they already belief think philosophy is a load of rubbish and immature. They ignore the big questions and are too occupied searching for material things. They ignore the fact that these questions are yet to be answered but opt to remaine oblivious to it. By philosophizing, people reflect and criticize their most deeply held conceptions and beliefs. Essentially, the sole purpose of a normal life is to perpetuate and thrive to expand and fill the world galaxy with it. When we humans have gotten past a certain level or mark and into higher sentience. Then comes the aesthetic values, that we currently enjoy. however, the modern day society prevents most from doing so because the earth is overcrowded, and there’s the fight for resources. Philosophy attempts to search the evidence of all beliefs. It takes a second look at cultural norms. They attempt to think through a variety of life problems. It leads the mind to a critical evaluation of things, but critical evaluations often differ from person to person for their personal expierences, cultural background may vary widely. In this changing universe, some people are responsive to it and some are not. Some cling on to old tradtions passed down decads ago and declare that they are final. Often those who are unresponsive to it are old, narrow minded, stubborn people. Philosophy tries to relate reality to belief. It tries to find evidence and speculates the truth behind our daily assumptions. Due to this, some people think philosophy is dangerous. Socrates was accused for corrupting the mind of the youth in Athens. In this epoch, people think philosophy is nonsense and too corrupts the youth. It deters the youth from their original beliefs and confuses them even more that they already are. By philosophizing, people ask questions. They ask questions to get closer to the truth. But in fact, most of the time, they do not get closer to the truth but end up with even more unanswerable questions. Babies and young kids have this faculty of wonder. They ask adults a lot of questions Why is the sky so high? and many adults cannot answer that question because they themselves can t answer those questions. Shallowness, incompleteness, poor reasoning, and assertions with flimsy foundations prevent a truly enlightened person. When a person comes up with a philosophy or theory of his own, he persuades other people and influences them. Orators sways minds and hearts and thereby wage wars, gain control and seduce an unsuspecting public. To illustrate this point, lets say a nobody comes out and questions the government and influences the rest of the public to do so, with enough questioning citizens the government will be overpowered by the overwhelming demand of inquiries and thus cause chaos in a country†¦ Those who advocate total control or even economists philosophy like Carl Marx and his views on social reform can change the whole values of society, which means every single unit of society (us) will be affected even if we resist the next generation will grow up already brainwashed and in their minds that this is good, that is bad. This is why some people say philosophy is dangerous Philosophy can also change a way a person thinks. It can change peoples mind set especially those who are fickle and are not sure about their own true identities. These people change as they get influenced and cannot decide which is right and which is wrong. In our age of confusion and uncertainty, we need a sense of identity. Unaware of the complexities of an issue, unfamiliarity of certain issues, and unable to distinguish valid and invalid reasoning, these disoriented people might give in to authoritarian approaches to sacrifice their lives for certain values and ideas. And if people start philosopizing about things that are dangerous, it might baffle a person of their till then perception of things. People then turn to religion for a sense of direction. But once they start questioning the veracity of the religion, they are then deterred away again from their search of identity. Leaving them profound and doubtful. Philosophy is dangerous because it threatens to change or lives. But then again, because philosophy precedes the faculty of wonder, many things that were assumed have been justified. The world is not all sleight of hand and deception. A lot of old age enigmas have now been explained by science. What the dark side of the moon look likes was once shrouded in mystery but now we know exactly how it looks like. Philosophy leads to evolution. Because of that people improve. If it weren t because of the curiousness of scientists, we wouldn t have new inventions of machinery, of mathematical formulae, and wouldn t have the technology we now have in our lives. We would still be living in the dark, not knowing where to turn to. With this use, we cannot entirely say that philosophy is dangerous since it brings us so many advantages. Humanity has acquired a great new power in science and technology. We obtain numerous techniques for gaining greater security and comforts have been developed. Philosophy, in conjunction with other disciplines, plays a central in guiding us toward new desires and aspirations. It guides us to a clearer more assuring road into life. Philosophizing leads us to seek more knowledge and thus making a person wiser. It guides us to make more knowledgeable and wiser choices in life. The exploration of the possible, reasonable solution clarifies the options open to thoughtful persons. The usefulness of choosing from the reasoned, researched alternatives rather than from bigoted, impulsive, and unclear claims is apparent inn all dimension of our lives. Ideally, the study of philosophy nurtures our capacity for making informed choices. Ultimately, there isn t really a definite answer to the question whether philosophy is dangerous. This is due to the fact that philosophy brought humanity to evolve and improve yet making people feel anxious and insecure because they are uncertain about the meaning of life and which direction they should take life in. How to cite What Is Philosophy, Essay examples What Is Philosophy Free Essays There are many different kinds of philosophy and almost anything and everything has its own philosophy. Philosophy is the inquiring of existence, to find out what it s meaning is. It is the search for truth and understanding. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is Philosophy or any similar topic only for you Order Now Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom, not only in oneself but also in others. When asking for a philosophy on something it is mainly picking at one s brain to figure out the most inner thoughts and beliefs that one has on a subject. The idea of philosophy and the way that it works is mainly dependant on a person’s interpretive skill; it is a person’s thoughts on a certain subject in an analytical and exploratory manner. It is different levels of meaning. It is a search for some kind of general understanding of values and reality by a primarily speculative way rather than a merely observational way. Extensively speaking the purpose of philosophy is to study and find a reflective view of certainties, genuine concerns and general beliefs. Philosophy is like a classification of different theories on the disposition of things and what they are about. The branch of philosophy concerned with identifying the ultimate reality of nature of the universe is known as metaphysics. It is like a system of principles underlying a particular subject or study. Metaphysics was originally used to refer to the writings done by Aristotle on Physics. Now, it is better known for its attempt to understand the fundamental nature of all reality, if something is visible or not visible at all. Metaphysics seeks an explanation so basic and simple to everything that is, from what is human to what is spiritual and religious to what anything else really is. It is an argument that tries to figure out the things that actually exist and are truly real against the things that just seem to be real. There is a primary component of metaphysics and that component is ontology. Ontology is the theory of existence and being. It is pretty much concerned with identifying the things of the universe that are basic. Also. It takes a look at if something is composed of many diverse elements or if it plainly consists of only one fundamental compound. Ontology is usually compared with metaphysics proper. Metaphysics proper is more concerned with the general principles and traits of the world. It assumes that the general principles and traits of reality are simple and general and that because they are so general that they will apply to any kind of universe. Another way that metaphysics is divided is by a theoretical way and an applied way. Each describe a different way, one way just simply describes while the other way applies the description to practical problems. It puts knowledge to work and then gathers the knowledge for further examination. The branch of philosophy that studies knowledge is epistemology. Epistemology is a study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity. It seeks to define knowledge, identify its sources and establish its limits. Epistemology is derived from the Greek words Episteme and Theoria. According to the Greek language Episteme means knowledge and Theoria means theory. It addresses the philosophical problems surrounding the theory of knowledge. It attempts to answer the basic question of whether or not knowledge is true or false. What distinguishes true knowledge? What distinguishes false knowledge? These questions translates into issues of scientific methodology, it also forms one of the pillars of the new sciences of cognition. Epistemology is known for being the central area pf philosophy because philosophy is the quest for wisdom and truth. If you take a look at the history of epistemology, you see a clear trend, even though there is much confusion of many seemingly contradictory positions. The first theories of knowledge stressed its absolute, permanent character, while later theories put the emphasis on its relativity, its continuous development or evolution, and its active interference with the world and its subjects and objects. The whole trend seemingly moves from a static, passive view of knowledge towards a more and more adaptive and active one. How to cite What Is Philosophy, Essay examples What is philosophy Free Essays Philosophy pursues questions rather than answers. It alms at understanding and enlightenment rather than shorthand answers. Despite the fact that it is absolutely committed to the truth, certainty in philosophy is never given and complete as we cannot definitely close out the totality it strives to capture. We will write a custom essay sample on What is philosophy? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Therefore the search for truth is rather like constant striving for more insight than for the final word on the matters of life and the world. Nevertheless, a true philosopher is not bounded by any particular â€Å"truths† that set limits to his urge to continue forming enquiries. Philosophy does not have any specific subject matter and hence cannot be defined with regard to any particular scope of investigation. It may deal with every dimension of human life and can raise queries in any field of study or endeavor. Skepticism lies at the heart of philosophy. Therefore, asking a question is more fundamentally important than answering one. However, we should always keep in mind that philosophy properly done is not mere speculation. Just like scientists, philosophers formulate hypotheses which ultimately must answer to reason and evidence. Philosophy starts from bewilderment, curiosity, amazement about the world, life, and ourselves. It emerges from the functioning of an inquisitive mind which is puzzled by seemingly common things or by those that appear to be entirely impractical. Philosophers articulate their initial concern by formulating questions (mostly what, how and why questions) that guide their curiosity toward the comprehension of the problem. Russell revives the same Idea in claiming that philosophy â€Å"keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect†. As soon as we begin to philosophize, we find that even the most everyday things lead to confusing problems while those initially â€Å"impractical† issues often prove very significant even for our temporal needs and certainly for our self-understanding. Russell admits that philosophy is not very much successful in providing â€Å"definite answers† to Its questions but explains the apparent inconclusiveness of philosophic answers partly as deceptive, partly as Inevitable. 4 One might ask, If philosophy Is Just â€Å"a residue† of unanswered questions or a pursuit of the unknown, why should we keep doing it? The answer is simple – Just dealing with the enigma increases our comprehension of the problem and the complications involved in it. Without philosophic curiosity displayed, many important issues would have been overlooked or forgotten a long ago. Thus by continuing to raise questions and studying their implications, as Russell points out, we keep theoretical interest alive no matter whether It can yield positive results or not. This Is a rational strategy study. Therefore, despite the fact that philosophy does not provide definitive answers, it is not a futile activity of human mind. How to cite What is philosophy?, Papers