What is philosophy?

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom". In more casual speech the "philosophy" of a particular person can refer to the beliefs held by that person.

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Some articles on philosophy:

Misanthropy - Western Thought - Philosophy
... In Western philosophy, misanthropy has been connected to isolation from human society ... In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man "Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable...and when it happens to someone often...he ends up...hating everyone." Misanthropy, then, is presented as the result of thwarted expectations or even excessively naive optimism, since Plato argues that "art" would have allowed the potential misanthrope to recognize that the majority of men are to be found in between good and evil ...
Humboldt University Of Berlin - Organization
... Computer Science, Mathematics, Psychology) Charité - Berlin University Medicine Faculty of Philosophy I (Philosophy, History, European Ethnology, Department of Library ...
Later Islamic Philosophy - Illuminationist School
... Illuminationist philosophy was a school of Islamic philosophy founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi in the 12th century ... This school is a combination of Avicenna's philosophy and ancient Iranian philosophy, with many new innovative ideas of Suhrawardi ... In logic in Islamic philosophy, systematic refutations of Greek logic were written by the Illuminationist school, founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155-1191), who developed the idea of "decisive necessity ...
Cosmos - Philosophy
... This philosophy, explored by writers such as H.P ... Lovecraft (who some say is the original proponent of the philosophy) and later writers who actually represented the beliefs in books such as Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...
Early Islamic Philosophy - Main Protagonists of Falsafa and Their Critics
... The twelfth century saw the apotheosis of pure philosophy and the decline of the Kalam, which latter, being attacked by both the philosophers and the orthodox, perished for lack of champions ... This supreme exaltation of philosophy may be attributed, in great measure, to Al-Ghazali (1058–1111) among the Persians, and to Judah ha-Levi (1140 ... of the Philosophers), not only produced, by reaction, a current favorable to philosophy, but induced the philosophers themselves to profit by his criticism ...

More definitions of "philosophy":

  • (noun): The rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics.
  • (noun): Any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a situation.
    Example: "Self-indulgence was his only philosophy"; "my father's philosophy of child-rearing was to let mother do it"

Famous quotes containing the word philosophy:

    A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.
    Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)