Blogosophy

Why Philosophy?Only that it deals

Why Philosophy?

Only that it deals with fundamental questions, is all. Literally, philosophy is the love of wisdom, and what's not to love about wisdom? Who would really rather be a fool than one of the wise? (Many romantics pretend to, but curiously few have gone about life as if they actually desired to be foolish...) Philosophy lies at the heart of every single human inquiry, and forms the basis of our understanding of anything and everything: it is, in fact, the study of that understanding and whether and in what sense it is even possible to understand something. As a practical matter one can, of course, get along without ever asking any of the greater or lesser philosophical questions (Does anything really exist? Why are we here? Is it moral to do X? How do I know? Is it possible to know anything with certainty? Is there a God? Are these questions even meaningful?), let alone answering them...or at least attempting to answer them. Nevertheless, I can't help but feeling that it requires a uncommon dullness and lack of curiosity not to entertain them at least briefly, and that if one desires to live a good life it is insouciance bordering on recklessness never to think seriously about what "a good life" means and how to go about having one, or how to recognize one if you have it.

Broadly, once can divide philosophy along the following lines, based on the questions it grapples with:

• What is?- Metaphysics


• What is truth?- Logic


• What is knowledge?- Epistemology


• What is good?- Ethics


• What is beauty?- Aesthetics


• What is justice?- Political Philosophy


• What am "I"?- Philosophy of Mind


• What is this sentence?- Philosophy of Language


• Who is this God person, anyway?- Philosophy of Religion

Naturally, the above is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and hardly comprehensive, but as a first cut it's not bad. Almost all of these questions fascinate me, and I keep returning to them and rolling them over in my mind. I go through periods where I metaphorically throw up my hands, and dismiss them--or much of the conversation that has grown up around them--as esoteric and artificial, but that only lasts until I go haring off after a glimpse of a shiny new idea. Posted by joshua at May 13, 2003 12:05 PM