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.
Professor Marc A. Moffett