What Is Philosophy?

Philosophy can be defined as "the branch of knowledge or academic study devoted to the systematic examination of basic concepts such as truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom" (Encarta) or "the analysis or systematic study of meanings" (Gill. P2. 2002). I believe that philosophy seeks to analyse meanings and to discover truths regarding the world around us.

According to Gill (P6. 2002), philosophy is divided into five main areas of study, logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and social/political philosophy. All of which are factors contributing to how we make decisions about our everyday life.

Logic is "the study of the principles of reasoning" (unknown 2004). Logic refers to our rational thought patterns including how we come to know whether an argument is valid or not. The validity of an argument is determined by the propositions; the strength of the premises and conclusions. Understanding logic can help us to better communicate and put forward an argument.

Epistemology delves into the origin and nature of human knowledge; it asks the question of Ð''how do we know what we know?' and is often referred to as the theory or science of knowledge (Woods. P2. 1999). this forces us to ask ourselves exactly how it is we know the things we know.

Metaphysics is concerned with "what makes the world what it is and what makes it work the way it does" (Gill. P6. 2002) and how we determine what is real and what is unreal. Beliefs in God and religion come under the study of metaphysics.

Ethics explores the notion how we judge what is deemed right and wrong regarding human behaviour (Gill. P6. 2002). It is related to morality and human virtue, philosophically allowing us to question our own personal ethics.

Social or political philosophy is closely related to ethics dealing with issues of human social behaviour. Free will, individualism and authority are all aspects of social philosophy (Wikipedia. 2007). E.g., do humans really have free will when it comes to making every day decisions?

I believe that the main aim of philosophy is to encourage us to think outside of the square and to question everything instead of accepting everything to be completely black and white. Philosophy challenges us to critically analyse how and why we make certain choices. It also allows us to listen to others more readily rather than jumping in with our own assumptions