[Cz-philosophy] What is Philosphy?

[John Mackenzie]

I would like to suggest this as a possible intro. to the Philosphy section,
rather than beginning by describing ³Philosphy as abstract intellectual
discourse² and then offering various possible ways of defining it.  I think
that would drive away anyone who is not already familiar with the
discipline...
However, others may feel that this is true of the alternative offering...

What is Philosophy?
 
Most disciplines can be defined by the questions they ask and seek to
answer, whether they be about Œliving things¹ (Biology), Œspace, time and
matter¹ (Physics), Œthe optimal allocation of scarce resources¹ (Economics),
and so on
 
In 1945, Bertrand Russell published his History of Western Philosophy
(Simon and Schuster, New York) where he characterizes philosophical
questions as a No Man¹s Land between Science and Theology. Philosophical
questioning and reasoning share the stringent rational requirements that one
expects of scientific thinking, but the questions that are asked are not
amenable to single answers discovered by careful observation and experiment.
 
The questions that Philosophy is concerned with, are what many writers refer
to as the big questions which human beings are prone to asking.  As Robert
Solomon has pointed in his Introducing Philosophy, (Oxford University Press,
2001, p, ³We all have some opinions about God, about morality and its
principles, about the nature of man and the nature of the universe².  We
could also add that many times we all have some niggling doubts about these
opinions that we have often received as part of our cultural history and
upbringing, but that we haven¹t really examined in any depth.
 
This is precisely what philosophy sets out to do.  It helps us to ground
some of our unexamined assumptions, or to reject them if found wanting, even
though anyone who has engaged in this sort of questioning soon learns that
it does not lead to cut-and-dried answers that provide a once-and-for-all
solution to our doubts.  In a world of increasing uncertainties, it becomes
more and more important to develop the intellectual skills that will allow
us to cope. 
 
 ³To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralysed by
hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can
still do for those who study it². (Russell, op.cit.)


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.citizendium.org/pipermail/cz-philosophy/attachments/20070929/07d060d8/attachment.html