What Is Philosophy

What is philosophy? There is a philosophy for anything. Philosophy is our human nature, aiming at knowledge. Finding the philosophy for an activity means thinking of the questions we need, and breaking it down, giving us many ways to go. When the question is more important than the answer, we find ourselves in a philosophical discussion. Philosophy is understanding and questioning knowledge. Our machine of a functioning western society is based off of beliefs and morals, from which we know what is right and wrong. It all came from the ancient Greek's philosophy. Philosophy is our guide for life, the way we think and act. It determines our actions and questions reality. Philosophers look at what we already know and push our imagination to its furthest limits. It is used, when we are unsure of answers. Throughout history, philosophers have lost the study of the mind to therapy, and the stars to astronomy. When we discover true, scientific answers, there is a separate science discovered, and it no longer becomes philosophy. There are some subjects to which we have made very little to no progress at all. What is the meaning of life? Philosophy presents many problems because of its lack of answers, and must be discussed with no definite route for solution. The answers that come out of philosophy come from studying it inside out.

Philosophy makes us aware of the importance of questions, to which we have no answers. Studying the way we (philosophers) go about discovering an answer, leads us to questions that we would not have thought of otherwise, such as with religion- leading us to perhaps one day, definite proof of the existence of god or an afterlife. Continuing our quest to finding these answers, to which we have made very little progress, keeps us free. Having a free mind is the value of philosophy. Asking ourselves why we don't know an answer, and putting our minds in unfamiliar territory keeps us free.

Ignorance can bring people that think philosophy is a backwards science that can only bring us doubt and controversy. Some question as to why philosophy should be studied. Russell, agreed with philosophers like Socrates, by saying that, living with that ignorant mindset gave you a meaningless life, leading an empty life. According to Russell, you must have philosophy in your life to give it order. When we have a question with no true fail proof answer, over time you will see many philosophers from different backgrounds with different beliefs and influences bring many possibilities to the table. With many answers at once, a philosopher can be even farther pushed away from certainty of what they thought was undeniably true. Many people could argue, that this is a non-improving technique, to have more than one answer, however there is a silver lining to this process. Russell says that with more than one possibility, we increase our potential