What Is Philosophy

What Is Philosophy

  • Submitted By: feebeeli
  • Date Submitted: 05/04/2013 3:07 PM
  • Category: Philosophy
  • Words: 400
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 95

Philosophy is not a "Way of Life”. Every person does not have his or her own "Philosophy".   Philosophy is not simply a theory about something. Nor is Philosophy a belief or a wish.  Philosophy is an activity: a quest after wisdom.  Philosophy is an activity of thought.  Philosophy is a particular unique type of thought or style of thinking.  Philosophy is not to be confused with its product.  What a philosopher provides is a body of philosophic thought not a Philosophy. A philosopher enacts a Philosophy, a quest after wisdom.
          Philosophy is not a picking and choosing what body of thought one would like to call one's own or would like to believe in; a choice based upon personal preferences or feelings.  Philosophy is a pursuit.  One can choose to be philosophical. One can choose to be a philosopher.  One cannot choose a Philosophy. Philosophy, insofar as it may be correlated at all to a "way of Life", is a form of thinking meant to guide action or to prescribe a way of life.  The philosophic way of life, if there is one, is displayed in a life in which action is held to be best directed when philosophical reflection has provided that direction; e.g., SOCRATES the paradigm of a philosopher.
Philosophy is an activity of thought, a type of thinking. Philosophy is critical and comprehensive thought, the most critical and comprehensive manner of thinking, which the human species has yet devised.  This intellectual process includes both an analytic and synthetic mode of operation.  Philosophy as a critical and comprehensive process of thought involves resolving confusion, unmasking assumptions, revealing presuppositions, distinguishing importance, testing positions, correcting distortions, looking for reasons, examining world-views and questioning conceptual frameworks.  It also includes dispelling ignorance, enriching understanding, broadening experience, expanding horizons, developing imagination, controlling emotion, exploring values, and fixing...

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