Philosophy

• Philosophy (φιλοσοφία, 'love of wisdom', in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its own methods and assumptions.
• φίλος (philos)

  love
• σοφία (sophia)

  wisdom
• philosophy

  The word comes from the Ancient Greek words 'philos' meaning 'love' and 'sophia' meaning 'wisdom'
• Some sources say that the term was coined by the pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras, but this is not certain
• Physics was originally part of philosophy, like Isaac Newton's observation of how gravity affects falling apples
• The word 'philosophy' entered the English language primarily from Old French and Anglo-Norman


  around 1175 CE
• philosophy


  The term acquired the meanings of "advanced study of the speculative subjects (logic, ethics, physics, and metaphysics)", "deep wisdom consisting of love of truth and virtuous living", "profound learning as transmitted by the ancient writers", and "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, and the basic limits of human understanding"
• Historically, many of the individual sciences, such as physics and psychology, formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term.
• • Influential traditions in the history of philosophy include Western, Arabic–Persian, Indian, and Chinese philosophy
  • Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece and covers a wide area of philosophical subfields.
  • A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and revelation. Indian philosophy combines the spiritual problem of how to reach enlightenment with the exploration of the nature of reality and the ways of arriving at knowledge.
  • Chinese philosophy focuses principally on practical issues in relation to right social conduct, government, and self-cultivation.
• • Major branches of philosophy are epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
  • Epistemology studies what knowledge is and how to acquire it
  • Ethics investigates moral principles and what constitutes right conduct.
  • Logic is the study of correct reasoning and explores how good arguments can be distinguished from bad ones.
  • Metaphysics examines the most general features of reality, existence, objects, and properties
• • Other subfields of philosophy are:
  • aesthetics
  • philosophy of language
  • philosophy of mind
  • philosophy of religion
  • philosophy of science
  • philosophy of mathematics
  • philosophy of history
  • political philosophy
  • Within each branch, there are competing schools of philosophy that promote different principles, theories, or methods
• Philosophers use a great variety of methods to arrive at philosophical knowledge. They include conceptual analysis, reliance on common sense and intuitions, use of thought experiments, analysis of ordinary language, description of experience, and critical questioning
• Philosophy is related to many other fields, including the sciences, mathematics, business, law, and journalism. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective and studies the scope and fundamental concepts of these fields. It also investigates their methods and ethical implications.