NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY

Meaning of Philosophy

The word ‘Philosophy’ involves two Greek words – Philo meaning love and Sophia meaning knowledge. Thus literally speaking, philosophy means love of wisdom. Human is a rational animal. The desire for knowledge arises from this rational nature of humans. Philosophy is an attempt to satisfy this very reasonable desire. Philosophy signifies a natural and necessary urge in human beings to know themselves and the world in which they live, move, and have their being. Man can't live without a philosophy. The choice is not ‘between metaphysic and no metaphysic; it is between a good metaphysic and a bad metaphysic.’

The origin of Philosophy

Philosophy arises from wonder. Man experiences rains and drought, storms, clouds, lightning. At times, he is greatly terrified. Then the events of life and death mystify him. He begins to reflect on the events. The sun, moon, and the stars appear to him wonderful and beautiful. As a result of his reflection, he thinks that the events can be explained by powers akin to man. He proposes to control them through magical spells. This magic gives way to science, philosophy, and religion in due course. Magic becomes science when natural events begin to be explained and controlled with the help of natural causes. Magic, again, becomes religion when the powers are taken to be supernatural beings. The same magic flowers into philosophy when a man attempts to explain the world as a whole.

The subject matter of Philosophy

Philosophy is the rational attempt to have a world-view. It endeavors to reach a conception of the entire universe with all its elements and aspects and their interrelations to one another. It is not contented with a partial view of the world. It seeks to have a synoptic view of the whole reality: it tries to have a vision of the whole. The different sciences deal with different departments of the world. Mathematical sciences deal with numbers and figures. Physics deals with heat, light, motion, sound, electricity, and magnetism. Chemistry deals with chemical phenomena. Psychology deals with the phenomena of mental life. Sociology deals with the structure and growth of society and its institutions. Economics deals with the welfare and wealth of man. Politics deals with the structure and functions of the State and its various organs.

Thus sciences give us a sectional view of the world. But philosophy harmonizes the highest conclusions of the different sciences, coordinates them with one another, and gives a rational conception of the whole world. It investigates the nature of the fundamental concepts of matter, time pace, life, mind, and the like and interrelates them to one another. It enquires into the nature of the universe, its stuff or material, its Creator or God, its purpose, and its relation to man and his soul. It is the art of thinking all things logically, systematically, and persistently. It is the art of thinking rationally and systematically of reality as a whole.

Philosophical problems

The basic problems of philosophy have been the same in the East as in the West. A general characteristic of these problems was that they were concerned with general and universal questions and not with the questions and not with the questions of particular nature. In this sense, the philosophical problems are different from scientific problems that have their origin in particular questions.

Some examples of philosophical problems are: What is knowledge? What is the world? Who has created this world? Is there a God? Who am I? What is the aim of my life? Why should I live? What is the purpose of the world? etc.



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