What is Philosophy? 'What is philosophy? is itself a philosophical question and the answer to this question is a subject of debate.

For conveniences sake, philosophy may be defined as the study of general and fundamental problems concerning reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Its core aspects value critical thought and logical reasoning. Philosophy is the foundation on which all progressive, intellectual thought is built. It is not like any other academic subject, rather it is a critical approach to all subjects, the comprehensive vision within which all other subjects are contained. Philosophy is a style of life, a life of ideas or a life of reason. It is thinking about everything and anything. But mainly, it is living thoughtfully. Aristotle called this contemplative or philosophical life the ideal life for mankind. 'Philosophy' translates literally from the original Greek as 'love of wisdom'. According to Aristotle, this term was first used by Pythagoras. The essence of philosophy is the study and development of fundamental ideas and methods that are not adequately addressed in the empirical studies, such as physics or history. Philosophy provides the foundations upon which all belief structures and fields of knowledge are built. It is responsible for the definitions and the approaches used to develop the theories of fields as religion, language, science, law, psychology, mathematics and politics. It also examines and develops its own structure and procedures, and when it does so is called metaphilosophy, the philosophy of philosophy. Philosophy has a rich literary heritage, including the writings and teachings of profound thinkers from many cultures throughout history. Philosophers seek to understand the principles that underlie all knowledge and being. For this purpose, they develop methods of thinking,

including logic, introspection and meditation. Applying these methods, they investigate the most fundamental questions, such as "What is the nature of the universe?" (metaphysics), "What do we know, and how do we know it?" (epistemology), "What is the difference between good and evil?" (ethics), "What is beauty?" (aesthetics) (teleology). The Subject Matter of Philosophy In principle, any area of human concern can become the subject matter of philosophical interest. Philosophy does not have a narrowly restricted subject matter. Originally philosophers were interested in everything. At one time the term 'philosophy' covered all disciplines. Over time, as the body of human knowledge grew, various disciplines emerged, each with their own methodologies and domains of study, and these disciplines became to a large extent autonomous. Much of what the ancient philosophers concerned themselves with would now be classified as physics, zoology, psychology, anthropology, political science, literary criticism and mathematics. Philosophy refers to attempts on the part of serious thinkers to get at the basis of things not the superficial, trivial details but the underlying fundamentals. As an example, take the idea of matter. A student of chemistry would be interested in classifying into different types called elements. However a philosopher would deal with what matter is in general. Philosophy looks for principles underlying the whole of art, morality, religion or the physical universe. It is the attempt to provide for oneself an outlook on life based on the discovery of broad, fundamental principles. and "What is the meaning of life?"

Origins of Philosophy Philosophy is said to originate from mans inherent sense of wonder at the universe which he inhabits. Historically, philosophy originated, in the east, mainly in India and China and, in the west, in Greece. Indian philosophy begins with the composition of the Vedas. The oldest of the four Vedas, the Rig Veda is thought to have been composed roughly between 1700 and 1100 BC and this period is known as the Vedic period. After the Vedas, the earliest Upanishads began to be composed. The Epic period is considered to have lasted from 600 B.C. to 200 A.D. During this period, the schools of Indian philosophy or the darsanas came into being. It was also during this period that the two great epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were composed. This period is also significant because it witnessed the rise and early development of

Shaivism and Vaishnavism as well as that of Jainism and Buddhism. The history of philosophy in the west begins with the Greeks. Thales of Miletus (c. 624 BC - 546 BC), is regarded as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. He was followed by great thinkers like Xenophanes, Pythagoras and Heraclitus and a group of philosophers called the Sophists. Classical Greek philosophy is said to begin with Socrates (c. 469 BC 399 BC). Socrates great student was Plato, who taught Aristotle. Both Plato and Aristotle are two of the most influential thinkers of the western hemisphere. Rational Reflection Philosophy differs from other subjects not only in its attempt to discover the most general and fundamental underlying principles but also in its method. The method used by philosophy can be described as rational reflection. Unlike the sciences, philosophy does not discover new

empirical facts, but instead reflects on the facts we are already familiar with, or those given to us by the empirical sciences, to see what they lead to and how they all hang together. All of us have certain ideas and opinions before we begin the study of philosophy about what the world is like and how we come to know it. But by rationally reflecting on this prereflective understanding of things, we try to deepen this understanding to see what it implies, what it all adds up to, in short, to see it all in a large perspective. Through rational reflection, philosophy offers a means of coming to an understanding of humankind, the world and our responsibilities in the world. In general, the philosopher is trained to rationally reflect on how the fundamental questions relate to all human activities. Normative Function Philosophy differs from other subjects in being normative. By normative, it is meant that unlike other disciplines philosophy tries to distinguish, in very broad ways, what is from what ought to be. To establish norms, philosophy often appeals to the nature or essence of things. For example, a philosopher might say humans are rational. This is not a description of the way people are but what they ought to be. The philosopher is saying that only the rational part of a person deserves to be called human, because the rational part makes human beings different from animals. And this normative definition implies normative modes of behaviour. That is, given this conception of what it means to be human, some kinds of activities should be encourages and other kinds should be discouraged. Hence, philosophy differs from the natural and social subjects, which deliberately avoid any kind of value judgements. For example, a psychologist will describe how people reason whereas a logician wilt try to find rules for distinguishing correct from incorrect reasoning. In

general, we can characterise the normative function of philosophy as a concern for establishing standards for correct and incorrect ways of thinking and acting: standards for correct decisions about reality, knowledge, morality, beauty, justice and so on. The search for these normative criteria is no less important a task for philosophy than is its search for general principles. The Branches of Philosophy Epistemology Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech), is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge. Metaphysics Metaphysics or Ontology is the study of the most general aspects of reality, such as substance, identity, the nature of the mind, and free will. Ontology of nature investigates the nature if matter, time, space, causality etc., ontology of the soul the nature, origin and destiny of the soul and its relation to the body and ontology of God, the nature and attributes of God. Logic Logic is most often said to be the study of arguments. The task of the logician is to advance an account of true and false inference to distinguish good from bad arguments. Ethics Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the "study of morality". In philosophy, ethical behaviour is that which is "good" or "right." Ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy.

Importance of Philosophy or Why Study Philosophy? Philosophic thought is an inescapable part of human existence. Almost everyone has been puzzled from time to time by such essentially philosophic questions as "What does life mean?" "Did I have any existence before I was born?" and "Is there life after death?" Most people also have some kind of philosophy in the sense of a personal outlook on life. Even a person who claims that considering philosophic questions is a waste of time is expressing what is important, worthwhile, or valuable. A rejection of all philosophy is in itself philosophy. Every institution of society is based on philosophic ideas, whether that institution is the law, government, religion, the family, marriage, industry, business, or education. Philosophic differences have led to the overthrow of governments, drastic changes in laws, and the transformation of entire economic systems. Such changes have occurred because the people involved held certain beliefs about what is important, true, real, and significant and about how life should be ordered. Systems of education follow a society's philosophic ideas about what children should be taught and for what purposes. The values and skills taught by the educational system of a society thus reflect the society's philosophic ideas of what is important. Philosophy enlarges our view of ourselves and our knowledge of the world, allowing us to break out of our prejudices and harmful habits. It puts our lives and our beliefs in perspective by enabling us to see afresh the ways in which we view the world. It encourages us to see the consequences of our views and sometimes their hopeless inconsistencies. It allows us to see the justification for our most treasured beliefs and to separate what we will continue to believe with confidence from what we should consider doubtful or reject. Philosophy gives us the intellectual strength to defend what we do and what we believe to others and to ourselves. The study of

philosophy is best undertaken seriously as an attempt to understand oneself and the universe, and even to reconcile the two. A thorough examination of internal and external life can dramatically change the way we see the world, casting a clearer light on phenomena that we were once immersed in. In this way, the study of philosophy is the study of our lives.

Bibliography Solomon, Richard C., Introducing Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2008. Kulpe, Oswald, Introduction to Philosophy, Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, 2007.