What Is Philosophy?

The term philosophy is a composite word derived from two Greek words, philos, “love,” and sophia, “wisdom,” meaning “love of wisdom.” The wisdom that philosophy teaches relates to what it might mean to lead a good life. Philosophy is also concerned with knowledge of things as they are. One of the instincts leading human beings to philosophy is evident in the quest to know more and more about this universe. The subject of philosophy is to investigate the mostly general and fundamental principles that can be used to understand humankind and its responsibilities in this life and universe through rational and scientific reflection.

In everyday life people are usually busy and do not find time to think and argue in a philosophical manner. Most of their time is spent in the struggle for a livelihood. However, there have been people through the ages who ask straightforward but complex questions that do not bear practical answers: What is the true nature of reality? What is true and what is false? Do we have enough knowledge to be certain about anything? What are humans really like, and what is special about the human mind and consciousness? What are God and religion all about? Are humans free to choose who they are and what they do? Is scientific knowledge superior to other kinds of knowledge? There are many such questions. Overall, they concern the meaning of life and do not seem to have much to do with everyday survival. Nevertheless, those we recognize as philosophers continue to look for convincing answers to them.

The earlier philosophers were usually individual sages asking questions and providing answers about everything. But now philosophy is a very comprehensive subject classified into various branches. These include epistemology (theory of knowledge), metaphysics (theories about time, space, God, cause, and reality), ethics (principles of good and bad, value, and conduct), logic (theory of proof), aesthetics (about art and beauty), political philosophy (law, politics, and society), social philosophy (society and social science), philosophy of religion (reason and religion), philosophy of history (knowledge and doctrines of civilizations), and many more.  Generally philosophy, covering all these subjects, is the critical and systematic study of an unlimited range of ideas and issues, regulated by logical and rational argumentation.

According to some thinkers, philosophy evolves out of debate, argumentation, and criticism. For others, only deductive reasoning produces and develops philosophy. Some believe its development and evolution lie in the pursuit of knowledge. Others believe philosophy is “thinking about thinking” and that its major role is to define or clarify ideas and remove misunderstandings. For Plato, “philosophy begins in wonder.” Aristotle believed that “all men by nature desire to know.” Regardless of their viewpoint, however, philosophers and thinkers are obliged to produce some kind of doctrine, explanation, argument, or proof. Philosophy is thus, an attempt to answer ultimate, often agitating, questions with reasoning and attentive thoughtful scrutiny.

Al-Kindi the famous Arab philosopher of ninth century viewed that “philosophy is the knowledge of the reality of things within man’s possibility, because the philosopher’s end in his theoretical knowledge is to gain truth and in his practical knowledge to behave in accordance with truth.”¹ Many Muslim philosophers following al-Kindi have emphasized the importance of practical role of philosophy. According to Bertrand Russell, “philosophy is merely the attempt to answer such ultimate questions, not carelessly and dogmatically as we do in ordinary life and even in the sciences, but critically, after exploring all that makes such questions puzzling, and after realizing all the vagueness and confusion that underlie our ordinary ideas.”² He explains further that, “Philosophy, as I shall understand the word, is something intermediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists of speculations on matters as to which definite knowledge has, so far, been unascertainable; but like science, it appeals to human reason rather than to authority, whether that of tradition or that of revelation. All definite knowledge—so I should contend—belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a ‘No Man’s Land,’ exposed to attack from both sides; this ‘No Man’s Land’ is philosophy.”³ Philosophy is continually attacked by religion and science and thus it becomes its job to draw rational evidence upon science and religion. Philosophy therefore, attempts to resolve those theoretical and abstract issues that are left unsolved by the natural and social sciences. It deals with questions about the nature and justification of knowledge, existence, belief and crucial concepts such as free will, God and truth. In short, a study of philosophers and their thought would probably yield a clearer idea of what exactly philosophy is.

Interestingly, philosophy is a unique activity that is not art or religion or science, but is still closely connected with these subjects. According to Bertrand Russell, “Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs. . . . It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science.”⁴ In science, religion, and art many questions are consensual in answers. But there are some questions whose suggested answers fall short of reasonable answers. All such questions become subjects of philosophy. However, with all their instinctive curiosity, philosophers often find it difficult to agree on a problem or question. This is understandable, since philosophical problems are complex and deal with questions over which people generally disagree. Confucius the Chinese sage said, “He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”⁵ The business of philosophers is to learn by thinking and to challenge concepts and assumptions so that new ideas can emerge to deal with the all-time hardest-to-solve problems.

According to Emmanuel Kant the role of philosophy is not to prescribe rules or set principles but its business is to analyze the independent judgments of common reason. Although philosophy does not set rules, as the sciences and many other branches of knowledge do, its importance cannot be underemphasized. Our discoveries in science and technology show us that it is not possible to know and establish what to do with such discoveries without having a vision of what sort of society human beings want to live in.

Societal, political, and technological changes have been bound up with the ideologies and philosophical outlook of thinkers and philosophers. “To understand an age or a nation, we must understand its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy we must ourselves be in some degree philosophers.”⁶ The ideologies of great thinkers have played an important role in the formation of societies. Great nations like the United States and the Soviet Union were born of the philosophical conceptions of Thomas Paine and Karl Marx. Modern India owes a lot to Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. The idea of Pakistan is the brainchild of philosopher-poet Muhammad Iqbal. The present Saudi Arabian kingdom stands on the theological and philosophical propositions of the eighteenth century Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

Throughout history every philosophy in its time bears the mark of its origin. Ancient Greek philosophy, which is described as inquisitive, grew out of a way of thinking that emphasized good reasoning. Chinese philosophy is humanistic, not in the modern sense of humanism, but focused on the intrinsic values of human life and relationships among social, moral, and political issues. Indian philosophy, having evolved out of the Vedic texts and traditions, is meditative. Islamic philosophy is spiritual, being based on religious faith supported by reason. French philosophical conception is rationalistic, which emphasizes the belief that knowledge can be achieved through the use of reason. German philosophy is speculative, reconciling intellect and the senses, or in other words, rationalism and empiricism. British philosophy is recognized as empirical, defining that knowledge can be attained through sense experience. American philosophical quest is founded on realistic considerations, such as that truth is what works or is useful and that all knowledge is pragmatic.

This article is contributed by Mr. Mirza I Ashraf