What is philosophy?
On one
common usage, the word “philosophy” means something like
“viewpoint”. This is what people have in mind, for example, when they
say, “My philosophy is that you should live and let live.” With this
common idea of philosophy in mind, many students naturally assume that the
study of philosophy is simply the study of various world views. After looking
over these alternatives, one simply chooses
a philosophy which suites one’s temperament.
Such a
conception of philosophy is deeply misleading. Philosophy, like science, is a critical, truth-seeking enterprise. What
guides the would-be philosopher’s choice is not temperament or faith, but
reason: the production of arguments for or against the correctness of a given
theory.
Moreover,
from a philosophical perspective, there are no "sacred cows"–not
even our belief in an external world is beyond critical scrutiny. This is not
mere perversity on the part of philosophers. After all, if it is really
obvious that there is an external world, then surely we should be able to
show it to the satisfaction of someone who saw fit (for whatever reason) to
be skeptical.
The idea
that philosophers are engaged in a critical enquiry about even the most basic
aspects of the world provides us with one possible answer to our question,
"What is philosophy?"
- Philosophy is the critical study of the world in its
most fundamental aspects and of our place therein.
