What Is Philosophy?
Thinking about thinking across metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
What we consider to be the domain of Philosophy has changed during the course of history, making any definitions difficult and open to controversy. Philosophy has traditionally been divided into three major branches, natural, moral, and metaphysical. Additionally, many areas of inquiry which were once part of philosophy have since detached and become fields of their own, respectfully; for example, modern science, which once was known as Natural Philosophy.
In a sense, philosophy can be defined as ‘thinking about thinking.’ Meaning, a manner of reflective thought about particular kinds of thinking (beliefs, claims to knowledge) about the world or large parts therein. Though more specifically, philosophy is a systematic kind of:
“rationally critical thinking…about the general nature of the world (metaphysics or theory of existence), the justification of belief (epistemology or theory of knowledge), and the conduct of life (ethics or theory of value).”
(Honderich 1995, p. 666)
Each of these elements (metaphysics, epistemology and ethics) has a non-philosophical counterpart; what separates the non-philosophical from philosophy proper is the latter’s rational and critical way of proceeding and by its systematic nature.
- Metaphysics
- A general conception of the nature of the world filled with unargued assumptions, metaphysics replaces with a rational and organised body of beliefs about the world as a whole.
- Epistemology
- Occasional doubt and questioning of beliefs, epistemology seeks by argument to make explicit the rules of correct belief-formation.
- Ethics
- The self governing of one’s conduct by directing it toward desired or valued ends, ethics seeks to articulate the rules or principles involved.
Moreover, these three main parts of philosophy are related to each other. For example, to guide our conduct rationally we need a general conception of the world in which it is carried out and of ourselves as acting in it. And metaphysics presupposes epistemology, both to justify the forms of reasoning on which it relies and to assure the correctness of the large assumptions which it makes about the nature of things.
In sum, philosophy isn’t just one thing; it is a complex varied field of inquiry on the generality of the whole. Borne out from questioning our underlying assumptions of the world, ourselves, and how we know things; it is a method of questioning derived from our desire to understand.
References
Honderich, T 1995, The Oxford companion to philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.