What is Philosophy

What in the World is Going on Here?

Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything. - Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain. For what is hidden, for example, is of no interest to us.

What is Philosophy?

Philosophy has had over two millenia to mature into the discipline it is today. Philosophy began as a discipline concerned with questions now commonly associated with science. For instance, the first philosophers, the Pre-Socratics, queried, “what is the basic ‘stuff’ of the universe?” Their answers were simple: “water,” “air,” “fire,” or the “indefinite.” These answers werecarefully devised. Each answer had an argument to substantiate it. This is the distinguishing feature of philosophy - arguments. Before Thales, persons of knowledge tried to substantiate claims by offering evidence from religion and myth. Thales of Miletus argued that everything is water. He argued that (1) the fundamental explanation of the universe must be one in number, (2) that this reality must be a ‘thing’, and (3) that this one thing must have within itself the ability to move and change. Water, according to Thales, is the only thing that qualifies as the fundamental explanation of the universe.

Several disciplines have emerged from the first question of philosophy. Mathematics, sociology, biology, physics, and business and economics, to name just a few, all arise out of philosophy. If we think about these disciplines in terms of the questions they ask, then we will usually find a philosophical question. For example, in mathematics, several mathematicians have asked "what is the foundation of mathematics?" This is a purely philosophical question. Like philosophy, this foundational questions seeks the absolute or fundamental foundation upon which all of mathematics can rest. So, we can say that other disciplines have many ties to philosophy.

In a way, these other disciplines depend (at least in part) on philosophy for their birth, cultivation, and maturation. Despite the fact that we have determined philosophy to be important to other disciplines, the definition of philosophy still eludes us. That philosophy is important to the other arts and sciences does not define philosophy; rather, it merely seems to show that it is important (I will return to the importance of philosophy in Section 1.2). Throughout the ages, philosophy has been defined in many, many different ways. Below is a sample of seven different definitions. They are in no way conclusive, but they will give the student a flavor of what philosophy is.

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