What is Philosophy?

What is Philosophy?

Philosophy, a Latin word which means “for the love of wisdom” is the
abstract and methodological consideration of reality as a whole or some
dimensions of human experience and existence. There have been numerous
researches on philosophy like for example Buddhism, Chinese Philosophy,
Hinduism and with all this we still aim to know about human experience and
general existence. There is still no explanation as to when philosophy began
but the simplest answer would be philosophy began at any time in the distant
past. When people are born, they grow up trying to understand life and the
things that happen everyday in their lives, so that is when philosophy begins.
When one tries to increase their knowledge of life, then philosophy begins
there.
People turn to philosophy, when religion fails to address their needs.
This means that philosophy can develop independently but it mostly comes
about when people start to feel like their religion and beliefs are not enough
to answer the many occurrences that life throws at them. These belief
structures, brought out as part of a culture, work to form a cultural
understanding of one’s place in the world and the philosophies which
developed in response to that understanding either want to explain it more
clearly or replace it with a new explanation. It is therefor, correct to say that

philosophy is all about adding more knowledge. From the Egyptians, we can
say that philosophy was there by 4000 BC because of illustrations of gods
and afterlife on their tombstones. Philosophy develops in India during the
Vedic Period between 1500 BC- 500 BC with the Upanishads.
Philosophy has developed over time and has branches which are
namely; axiology, metaphysics, epistemology and ethics philosophy. All
these are different understandings of wisdom. Axiology is the study of study
of the nature of value and valuation, metaphysics is the study of fundamental
nature of reality, epistemology is all about the study of nature, origins and
the limits of human knowledge. Ethics philosophy deals with the study of
what is right or wrong in human behavior. Other sub-branches of philosophy
are aesthetics, logic philosophy and political philosophy. The nature of
philosophy can be said to be purely scientific as it incorporates curious
discovery of human reality and integrates with other sciences like
Psychology, Sociology, Physics, Political Science, amongst others to
understand various philosophical questions.
It is true to say that philosophy has grown over time but there is no
difference between classical philosophy and modern philosophy. The
process of thinking is the same. The basic issue of philosophy is to solve the
riddle of existence – the cycle of birth and death and, at times rebirth. As

civilization advanced, the issue of religion was added to philosophy. Until
the 17th century, philosophy included all branches of education, and it is still
there, for example Ph.D. denotes Doctor of Philosophy. Modern
philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Marx, J.S. Mill have thought over the role of
‘pure reason’, ‘ humanism’, dialectics, historical materialism, dialectical
materialism, ‘idealism’ with its root in Pythagoras, globalism being the latest
addition. All branches of positive sciences and normative sciences, including
physics, chemistry, mathematics and even economics come within the scope
of philosophy. The same way ancient philosophy aimed to explain about life
and existence, it happens with modern philosophy. Ancient Greek
philosophy is traditionally divided into pre-Socratic and post-Socratic
periods while modern philosophy has seven branches as stated earlier. Due
to civilization, humans have the need to increase their knowledge and that is
why philosophy had to change. Change is inevitable and see how much
human knowledge has increased in the course of time, philosophy broadened
even further.
“Studying philosophy benefits the whole of society. It helps to build
bridges between peoples and cultures and heightens demand for quality
education for all.” These words were said by Irina Bokova, Director-General
of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Writer Alexander Livesey explains in the Huffington Post, “Philosophy is
not obsolete. Philosophy brings the important questions to the table and
works towards an answer. It encourages us to think critically about the
world; it is the foundation of all knowledge and when utilized properly, can
provide us with huge benefits.” Modern philosophy puts critical thinking and
problem -solving as the main ways to solve these modern problems. Science
is not the answer to every question and philosophy keeps us at a state of
mind that is towards figuring out what is true and worthwhile, and what it
means to live a meaningful and worthwhile life.

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