What is philosophy?
Philosophy is the activity of seeking wisdom. In Greek, which was the first language of
Western philosophy, “philosophy” means love of wisdom. One loves wisdom by trying
to figure out what it is. There are many ways human beings seek wisdom, including
art, religion, and lived experience. Philosophy is distinct because it seeks wisdom
through the systematic use of reason.
Philosophers focus on ideas, the meaning of ideas, and beliefs by analyzing them.
They break them down into their parts and then build them back up again and combine
them in new ways. In addition to analysis, philosophers reflect on what goes on
in the mind and the world; they seek wisdom through intuitions of whole structures
of thought or experience.
When did philosophy begin?
In the West, the scientific aspect of philosophy, or abstract general thought about the
natural and human worlds, began in ancient Greece in the seventh century B.C.E., with
inquiry about the earth and the cosmos by the so-called Pre-Socratic philosophers,
many of whom continued to flourish in Socrates’ time. Between the Pre-Socratics and
Socrates, the Sophists were the first to focus on the human world, although their methods
were adversarial and perhaps unethical. They were paid for their arguments, without
concern about their truth or the justice of what they were arguing for. With Socrates’
activities in the fifth century B.C.E., and his student Plato’s dramatization of Socrates’
style of discourse in written dialogues in the fourth century B.C.E., the true humanistic
side of philosophy was founded. The two big subjects of the natural world and the
human world endured as the concerns of philosophers, well after the physical and social
sciences branched out on their own. These subjects are also perennial in ordinary life.
How is philosophy different from other intellectual pursuits?
Generally, the kind of wisdom philosophers love consists of answers to questions,
which have to be worked out in the mind instead of discovered through microscopes,
telescopes, surveys, or measurement. For example, a sociologist will study what people
believe, but a philosopher will ask if those beliefs are true or justified by what is true.
Because philosophical questions cannot be answered with facts, their answers are
largely a matter of opinion. But the opinions are special, because reasons are always
given for them. Still—and this is what some people find so enjoyable about philosophy—
much of philosophical activity is a conversation or dialogue between and among
philosophers. And they almost never agree!
Naomi Zack, PhD (Author)
Naomi Zack received her PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University, NY. She has taught at the University at Albany, State University of New York and is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. Professor Zack regularly teaches courses in the History of Philosophy, Ethics, Feminism, Existentialism, Philosophy of Science, and Race, and she has published widely in these fields. Her scholarly book publications include: Inclusive Feminism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005); Philosophy of Science and Race (Routledge, 2002);Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth Century Identity, Then and Now (Temple, 1996);Race and Mixed Race (Temple, 1993)
Naomi Zack (Author)
Naomi Zack received her PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University, NY. She has taught at the University at Albany, State University of New York and is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. Professor Zack regularly teaches courses in the History of Philosophy, Ethics, Feminism, Existentialism, Philosophy of Science, and Race, and she has published widely in these fields. Her scholarly book publications include: Inclusive Feminism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005); Philosophy of Science and Race (Routledge, 2002);Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth Century Identity, Then and Now (Temple, 1996);Race and Mixed Race (Temple, 1993)