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What Is Philosophy?

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steve_bank

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What is Philosophy?

Some on the forum use the term philosophy as a kind of active agent, philology does one thing or another.

From my Phil 101 class the first thing the intro sid was the root meaning of the term. Love of knowledge.

Philosophy was a catch all phrase for knowledge seekers.

With the rise of modern science what is left is covered by the course listings at the UW.

In a broad sense you can say science or a branch like linguistics or anthropology are philosophies in that it is a search for knowledge. That does not mean philosophy is science.

I never new any engineer or scientist who quoited any philosophy as a part of the work.

All of course use logic which can be inductive or deductive. I had four classes in philosophy, one of which was logic. The others were Phil 101, comparative religion, and ethics.

The courses were useful in the long run. A professor told me to be competent in philosophy I would need to absorb about 20 books and pickup French or German. Not very appealing, I needed to make a living.


Pythagoras
Philosophy (from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, 'love of wisdom' is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 – 495 BCE).
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Philosophy Major | Department of Philosophy | University of Washington

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy In addition to the College of Arts & Sciences General Education Requirements, candidates for a B.A. in Philosophy must meet the following requirements:
phil.washington.edu phil.washington.edu

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy

In addition to the College of Arts & Sciences General Education Requirements, candidates for a B.A. in Philosophy must meet the following requirements:

50 Philosophy credits, to include:
PHIL 115 - Practical Reasoning OR
PHIL 120 - Introduction to Logic
PHIL 320 - History of Ancient Philosophy OR
PHIL 330 - History of Ancient Political Philosophy OR
PHIL 335 - Plato's Republic OR
PHIL 340 - History of Ancient Ethics
PHIL 322 - History of Modern Philosophy OR
PHIL 332 - History of Modern Political Philosophy OR
PHIL 342 - History of Modern Ethics
An upper-division course in the same areas may be substituted for the first three requirements.
The department must approve any substitutions.
Four courses at the 400-level, excluding transfer credits and reading courses (PHIL 484), which normally cannot be used to satisfy this requirement.
At least 25 of these credits must be from the University of Washington.
Minimum Philosophy GPA of 2.00


Course Course Title (click for details) Instructor
PHIL 100 A Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AA Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AB Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AC Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AD Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AE Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AF Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AG Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 100 AH Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 102 A Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 102 AA Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 102 AB Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 102 AC Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 102 AD Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 102 AE Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 102 AF Contemporary Moral Problems
PHIL 118 A The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AA The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AB The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AC The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AD The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AE The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AF The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AG The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AH The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 118 AI The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
PHIL 120 A Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AA Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AB Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AC Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AD Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AE Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AF Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AG Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AH Introduction to Logic
PHIL 120 AI Introduction to Logic
PHIL 205 A Philosophy for Children
PHIL 240 A Introduction to Ethics
PHIL 301 A Intermediate Topics in Philosophy
PHIL 320 A Ancient Philosophy
PHIL 322 A Modern Philosophy
PHIL 322 AA Modern Philosophy
PHIL 322 AB Modern Philosophy
PHIL 322 AC Modern Philosophy
PHIL 401 C Advanced Topics in Philosophy
PHIL 401 D Advanced Topics in Philosophy
PHIL 406 A Philosophical Topics in Feminism
PHIL 412 B Ethical Theory
PHIL 431 A Philosophy of Plato
PHIL 448 A Philosophy and Video Games: I Play Therefore I Am
PHIL 452 A Statistics and Philosophy of Voting
PHIL 453 A Philosophy of Language
PHIL 484 A Reading in Philosophy
PHIL 484 B Reading in Philosophy
PHIL 498 A Undergraduate Internship
PHIL 502 A Pre-Dissertation Workshop I
PHIL 504 A Topics in Teaching Philosophy I
PHIL 510 A Seminar in Social and Political Philosophy
PHIL 550 A Seminar in Epistemology
PHIL 584 A Reading in Philosophy
PHIL 600 A Independent Study or Research
PHIL 800 A Doctoral Dissertation
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Philosophers don’t say philosophy is science.

What they do say, correctly, is that science is shot through with philosophy.

And that science itself is a branch of philosophy, which used to be called natural philosophy. Einstein was one such.
 
“I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again 'I know that that’s a tree', pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell him: 'This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty
 
From the Oxford dictionary:

philosophy - the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline

Also the reason why one of my good friends can't get himself a date.
 
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"Love of wisdom" would be a better translation than "love of knowledge". A love of knowledge would be philognosis, philepisteme or some such construction. So, love of wisdom. And as I do love the pursuit of wisdom, I see no need to dress that turkey in further verbiage, it's fine the way it is. I love science, also. Enough so that I dedicated my life's work to teaching a branch or two of it! But, that does not contradict my wider experience of loving knowledge, and learning, for their own sakes. Science is my favorite methodology for seeking wisdom from the material world, not a replacement or substitute for wisdom as a general principle.
 
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