Welcome to Philosophy
Sarwar Kamal
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Philosophy:
Philosophy is regarded as an abstract subject far removed from the practical life, hardly understood by philosophers, let alone so called educated men. A person from any other discipline, though surprising, may ask what philosophy is. But it is too embrassing a question to answer, not only for new comers in philosophy but also for distinguished philosophers. Though most of us have vague understanding about philosophy, it is a curious fact that, we use the term frequently in our daily conversation. [1] Whatever be the proper usage and general perception of the people, philosophy is thought to be an extremely complex intellectual activity. Philosophy is indispensably linked with human thinking, firstly not to answer, but to ask questions about human existence, origin of nature or universe, relation of man with nature and about ultimate reality. In ancient age men were in bewilderment and wonder about the environment he lives in, so, they contemplated about the wonders of the universe in general and nature in particular. From time immemorial natural wonders and difficulty in life posed challenge to human being, so why men were tended to ask questions about the things, change and the reality. They wanted to solve problems and tried to unfold mystery with logical explanation. The earlier Greek philosophers assumed that their endeavour to know nature of the world would be successful through philosophical reflection.
Philosophy itself was originated from human wonder and curiosity in answering questions such as “What things are really like?” [2] or “How can we explain the process of change in things?” The pivotal concern of philosophy is neither theory nor practice; it is nothing but knowing that it deals with. From Greek denotation of the word ‘philosophy’, it is found that the term bears extremely broad sense covering science and arts. From Aristotelian exposition, philosophy includes logic, metaphysics, ethics, social and political science along with biology and physics. The Stoics and Epicureans (300 B.C.) divided knowledge into three divisions such as logic (including epistemology), physics (meaning all are now known as science), and ethics (including philosophy of mind and psychology).One can find different disciplines consecutively separated from philosophy in a historical evolvement i.e. physics in seventeenth century, biology in nineteenth century, psychology around the beginning of twentieth, linguistics in the mid-twentieth century.
So it is obvious that philosophy was used meaning different things at different times, depending on cultural perspective. Now, philosophy is concerned with a consistent, holistic and organised critical view of world, man and human problems. It is a logical way to analyse the fact and narratives of the world and beyond. There are, now, two different schools thought in identifying philosophy. One school is of the view that philosophy can be identified by subject matter, historically demarcated, it deals with such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics and logic. Another school consider methodology a determinant of philosophy i.e. philosophy is speculative, critical and analytic.
1.2 Etymology of Philosophy:
It is a common belief that Pythagoras was the first to coin the term ‘Philosophy’. The word philosophy etymologically derived from Greek ‘Philein’ (to love) and ‘Sophia’ (wisdom) so, philosophy meant, in Greek age, love of wisdom, later came to stand for knowledge about man and universe. As the term denote the love of wisdom, from Socratic approach of usage, it implies act of seeking knowledge. Thus philosophy itself is not knowledge; it is a way to knowledge, a process of making sense. If this is the meaning of philosophy, then, we can say, he is not philosopher who has knowledge; he is philosopher who has love for knowledge.
1.3 Subject matter of Philosophy:
Human endeavour to unfold mystery of the man and nature emerged as academic disciplines. Philosophy, as a discipline, has several branches. Every branch has different approach and questions to answer. Those questions are concerned with both empirical and non empirical entities. There are two approaches that are widely accepted; one is historical approach and another is issue approach. [3] Though some classic questions of philosophy derived from Greek mythology, especially Homer’s poetry, some questions were more empirical in nature. It was why some questions like’ what is real?’ or ‘’what is good or bad?’’ were not of same genre which could be answered in through a method or by a unified system of thought. From that drawback it was necessary to classify the human inquiry, leading to different branches of philosophy. Now we would like to proceed on explicating branches or area of study in philosophy.
Epistemology:
The word ‘’Epistemology’’ derived from ‘episteme’ meaning knowledge and ‘logos’ which can mean reason or rational investigation. Epistemology is also known as theory of knowledge. It is the study of knowledge, especially, questions of what can be known and how we can know about anything. It also deals with source of knowledge, means of knowledge, limitations of knowledge and possibility of knowledge. One of the most important branch of the philosophy, epistemology, also deals with basis of belief, certainty, justification, process of knowing, reliability of knowledge etc.
Logic:
Logic is a peripheral division of epistemology, a study which devoted to valid reasoning, based on human thought expressed in language. It is consist of some rules of correct reasoning by which we can differentiate good from bad reasoning and truth from false.
Metaphysics:
Metaphysics means, according to Greek etymology, that which come after physics. Some writers tried to express it as beyond physics, where physics meant nature. From Greek sense of the word, it can be said that metaphysics is the study of issues that are above and beyond physics because they are more abstract. But historical origin of the word ‘metaphysics’ denote Aristotle’s writing that were compiled or edited after Aristotle’s books on physics. Generally, metaphysics is the branch of philosophy which deals with highly abstract issues about the nature of reality, existence of God, mind, freedom of will, and other ontological issues.
Axiology:
In this field value of work is measured whether it is good or bad and whether it is beautiful or not.
It has two branches, namely ethic, which is concerned with moral value and aesthetics, which is concerned with artistic value. Ethics is a principle, practice and field of study which deals with standard, methods and basic concepts of evaluating human conduct while aesthetics is a field of philosophy which deals with the creation, value and experience of art and the analysis or solution of problems related to these.
Sarwar Kamal
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Philosophy:
Philosophy is regarded as an abstract subject far removed from the practical life, hardly understood by philosophers, let alone so called educated men. A person from any other discipline, though surprising, may ask what philosophy is. But it is too embrassing a question to answer, not only for new comers in philosophy but also for distinguished philosophers. Though most of us have vague understanding about philosophy, it is a curious fact that, we use the term frequently in our daily conversation. [1] Whatever be the proper usage and general perception of the people, philosophy is thought to be an extremely complex intellectual activity. Philosophy is indispensably linked with human thinking, firstly not to answer, but to ask questions about human existence, origin of nature or universe, relation of man with nature and about ultimate reality. In ancient age men were in bewilderment and wonder about the environment he lives in, so, they contemplated about the wonders of the universe in general and nature in particular. From time immemorial natural wonders and difficulty in life posed challenge to human being, so why men were tended to ask questions about the things, change and the reality. They wanted to solve problems and tried to unfold mystery with logical explanation. The earlier Greek philosophers assumed that their endeavour to know nature of the world would be successful through philosophical reflection.
Philosophy itself was originated from human wonder and curiosity in answering questions such as “What things are really like?” [2] or “How can we explain the process of change in things?” The pivotal concern of philosophy is neither theory nor practice; it is nothing but knowing that it deals with. From Greek denotation of the word ‘philosophy’, it is found that the term bears extremely broad sense covering science and arts. From Aristotelian exposition, philosophy includes logic, metaphysics, ethics, social and political science along with biology and physics. The Stoics and Epicureans (300 B.C.) divided knowledge into three divisions such as logic (including epistemology), physics (meaning all are now known as science), and ethics (including philosophy of mind and psychology).One can find different disciplines consecutively separated from philosophy in a historical evolvement i.e. physics in seventeenth century, biology in nineteenth century, psychology around the beginning of twentieth, linguistics in the mid-twentieth century.
So it is obvious that philosophy was used meaning different things at different times, depending on cultural perspective. Now, philosophy is concerned with a consistent, holistic and organised critical view of world, man and human problems. It is a logical way to analyse the fact and narratives of the world and beyond. There are, now, two different schools thought in identifying philosophy. One school is of the view that philosophy can be identified by subject matter, historically demarcated, it deals with such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics and logic. Another school consider methodology a determinant of philosophy i.e. philosophy is speculative, critical and analytic.
1.2 Etymology of Philosophy:
It is a common belief that Pythagoras was the first to coin the term ‘Philosophy’. The word philosophy etymologically derived from Greek ‘Philein’ (to love) and ‘Sophia’ (wisdom) so, philosophy meant, in Greek age, love of wisdom, later came to stand for knowledge about man and universe. As the term denote the love of wisdom, from Socratic approach of usage, it implies act of seeking knowledge. Thus philosophy itself is not knowledge; it is a way to knowledge, a process of making sense. If this is the meaning of philosophy, then, we can say, he is not philosopher who has knowledge; he is philosopher who has love for knowledge.
1.3 Subject matter of Philosophy:
Human endeavour to unfold mystery of the man and nature emerged as academic disciplines. Philosophy, as a discipline, has several branches. Every branch has different approach and questions to answer. Those questions are concerned with both empirical and non empirical entities. There are two approaches that are widely accepted; one is historical approach and another is issue approach. [3] Though some classic questions of philosophy derived from Greek mythology, especially Homer’s poetry, some questions were more empirical in nature. It was why some questions like’ what is real?’ or ‘’what is good or bad?’’ were not of same genre which could be answered in through a method or by a unified system of thought. From that drawback it was necessary to classify the human inquiry, leading to different branches of philosophy. Now we would like to proceed on explicating branches or area of study in philosophy.
Epistemology:
The word ‘’Epistemology’’ derived from ‘episteme’ meaning knowledge and ‘logos’ which can mean reason or rational investigation. Epistemology is also known as theory of knowledge. It is the study of knowledge, especially, questions of what can be known and how we can know about anything. It also deals with source of knowledge, means of knowledge, limitations of knowledge and possibility of knowledge. One of the most important branch of the philosophy, epistemology, also deals with basis of belief, certainty, justification, process of knowing, reliability of knowledge etc.
Logic:
Logic is a peripheral division of epistemology, a study which devoted to valid reasoning, based on human thought expressed in language. It is consist of some rules of correct reasoning by which we can differentiate good from bad reasoning and truth from false.
Metaphysics:
Metaphysics means, according to Greek etymology, that which come after physics. Some writers tried to express it as beyond physics, where physics meant nature. From Greek sense of the word, it can be said that metaphysics is the study of issues that are above and beyond physics because they are more abstract. But historical origin of the word ‘metaphysics’ denote Aristotle’s writing that were compiled or edited after Aristotle’s books on physics. Generally, metaphysics is the branch of philosophy which deals with highly abstract issues about the nature of reality, existence of God, mind, freedom of will, and other ontological issues.
Axiology:
In this field value of work is measured whether it is good or bad and whether it is beautiful or not.
It has two branches, namely ethic, which is concerned with moral value and aesthetics, which is concerned with artistic value. Ethics is a principle, practice and field of study which deals with standard, methods and basic concepts of evaluating human conduct while aesthetics is a field of philosophy which deals with the creation, value and experience of art and the analysis or solution of problems related to these.
Comments