What is your understanding of philosophy?

Philosophy in my opinion is exploring the unknown without fearing what one might find and excepting that reality. And if one cant find the true answer then the individual either continues his search or settle for a theory that's comfortable for the person.

As a math person, I view philosophy as rigorous speculation, which I do all the time (or so my wife tells me). Not much use for philosophers of Olde, but that's just me.

All philosophy is a tribute to rationality (not just logic).
All rationality is a tribute to truth.
Thus,
All philosophy is a tribute to truth.

I'll stop there, it's a decent syllogism. Someone might want to attempt a sorites.

Philosophy is the bridge between the abstract and the practical, using the abstract tools of logic and rhetoric to do the job of creating the tools with which to do the practical job of investigating both how anything really is and why anything morally should be.

Quoting Pfhorrest

investigate both what is real and what is moral.

:up:

[quote= Some guy]Wisdom is knowledge of what is true and good.[/quote]

Reply to Tiberiusmoon
My own view is that philosophy is the attempt to understand reallty. This involves many aspects because when one looks at life, it looms before us in so many angles, and it includes oneself and the reality within. There are so many aspects to search through, and the search for knowledge is infinite. There are so many books to read, and in studying philosophy it is also not possible to separate it from other disciplines completely.

There are so many loops and hidden corners, and it is possible to get more lost than one was before stepping into philosophy. It can be one step forwards, and two backwards. But, of course, there are ladders towards fantastic books. I believe that philosophy can be a great pleasure and it can be a lifelong quest.

Quoting TheMadFool

it's a decent syllogism.

Oh, come on.



Quoting Tiberiusmoon

your independent view

D'oh. But Russell's.

Russell, 1918:The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it

Quoting bongo fury

Oh, come on.

I'm sorry it wasn't to your taste. Speaking for myself, it feels right.

Many people really dislike this view, but I happen to think it's true. I understand philosophy as the study of mysteries, which is why the same questions keep popping up time and time again throughout history.

If philosophers manage to carve out some understanding of some aspect of reality, then it becomes a science and philosophers don't need to worry about it much anymore. Hence why it's called "the mother of the sciences"

Obviously this simplifies the situation a bit, discoveries in physics or biology or psychology can have consequences for philosophy, but these fields are now developed to the extent that they don't depend on philosophers anymore.

In this respect, philosophy is likely the broadest field of rational enquiry.

I think the main point of philosophy is to look behind appearances and assumptions about reality. An important aspect of this is metaphysics, especially ontology and the study of the relationship between mind and matter. But another interesting aspect is ethics and looking into how philosophy justifies religious and political beliefs and how philosophical theories can apply to political theory as a means to create a better society.

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."
—Wittgenstein On Certainty

And I will second all the answers above and cite Kant in an free interpretation of his saying in Prolegomena: we use logic (within philosophy) to enable us to take apart all things and examine them to the core, then we reach new conclusions as we go along (synthesis) on the basis of not intuitive connections that bring new insights.

We are able thus to introspection and while we are doing the above in regard to what surrounds us in the universe - come to know our own being from the "outside" because while we are examining all we also discover our own mind at work... and thus we can have theories in regard to that as well.

That is the core of philosophy according to Kant - and I do second that as well as the notions given above from other forum participants ...

Reply to Tom Storm haha... well, that would be that "knowing" it is a tree is because you were told so. The dog sittning next to you - watching the same object does not have a clue where he will pee to mark his revir ... now does he?!
:blush:

Reply to Iris0

Over there:

BOOOO!!!!....another damned Kantian. Spouting like, super, like, you know, old-guy stuff, nobody really understood to begin with, and therefore long since upended by disassociative anti-intellectualism.

Over here:

YEA!!!....another Kantian. Recognizing the paradigmatic shift in critical metaphysics, the proverbial crate and barrel of all current epistemological intellectualism.

I’m over here.

Reply to Mww I would not be so fast in categorizing ...neither myself or you but maybe you never understood the thrill of understanding the author of modern thoughts and thus the stars above and the laws inside.
I did...

[quote=anonymous (black cat)]Philosophy is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat.

Metaphysics is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there.

Theology is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there, and shouting "I found it!"

Science is like being in a dark room looking for a black cat while using a flashlight.[/quote]

Reply to 180 Proof you cannot be the black cat because that is me

Reply to 180 Proof

(Insert enthusiastically appreciative picture-thingy here)

Reply to Mww a rat?
:smile:
that's not me
its only because it is dark