WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

The word philosophy comes from the Greek philein, which means “to love,” and sophia, which means “knowledge” or “wisdom.” Because knowledge can be discovered in many fields, the Greeks (who invented philosophy) thought of any person who sought knowledge in any area as a philosopher. Thus, philosophy once encompassed nearly everything that counted as knowledge.

This view of philosophy persisted for more than two thousand years. The full title of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles, in which in 1729 Newton set forth his famous theories of mechanics, mathematics, and astronomy, is Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy . At that time, physics was still thought of as a variety of philosophy. In fact, at some point nearly every subject currently listed in your university’s catalog would have been considered philosophy. If you continue your studies and obtain the highest degree in psychology, mathematics, economics, sociology, history, biology, political science, or practically any other subject, you will be awarded a Ph.D, the doctorate of philosophy. However, philosophy can no longer claim those subject areas that have grown up and moved out of it.What, then, is philosophy today?

PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS

Here are a few other examples of philosophical questions.

• To what extent do we have a moral obligation to people we don’t know? For that matter, to what extent do we have a moral obligation to non human living things? How about the environment: do we have a moral obligation to it?

• What are the ethically legitimate functions and scope of government? What form of government is best? What is the proper connection between religion and the state? Questions like these separate Democrats from Republicans, conservatives from liberals, communists from capitalists, and theocrats from democrats.

• Do people have natural rights? If so, how do we know that? Where do they come from? What makes one person’s list of rights superior to another person’s?

• Is there a God? Perhaps just as important, Does it make any differencewhether there is or isn’t a God?

• Do ends justify means?

• What, if anything, is the self ? Is a person more than a physical body? Do

people really have free will?

• What is truth? Beauty? Art?

• Is it possible to know anything with absolute certainty?

• Does the universe have a purpose? Does life? Is there order in the cosmos

independent of what the mind puts there?

• What is time?

• Could anything have happened before the Big Bang?

• Why is it that the most advanced degree in so many fields is the doctor of philosophy?

• Which of the questions raised in this chapter is most interesting to you? What do you think

the answer is?

• Can two people both be correct if one says, “Two members of the same sex should not

have the right to get married,” and the other says, “Two members of the same sex should

have the right to get married”? Defend your answer with an argument.

• If, by the time you become an adult, every molecule in your body has been replaced with

a different one, are you-the-adult the same person as you-the-child?

• Are all philosophical questions unanswerable? How about the question you mentioned in

question 4?

• Does it matter if God exists? Take a position, and defend it with an argument.

• Does what is true depend on what your society believes is true? Was the world flat

when people believed it was flat?

• “2 2 4.”Was this true before there were

people (or other beings) around to think it?