Smart Art: Philosophy

Thoughts on Philosophy

The word "philosophy" is a merger of two Greek words, and literally means "love of wisdom." The actual subject of philosophy does not adhere strictly to that literal meaning. Various colleges and universities cover the subject in starkly different ways in their courses. While the early Greek philosophers touted "pursuit of knowledge for its own sake" as the core concept of philosophical study and debate, the philosophers who followed after them have often seen it differently.

To some, knowledge itself is not integral to philosophy. Rene Descartes, who famously said, "I think, therefore I am" did not hold the original Greek viewpoint.

Modern philosophers generally agree that their field is not a science. And so do scientists. While the methods used in the study of philosophy are typically (today, anyhow) analogous to those used in science they are not the same. A philosopher might conduct a thought experiment to ponder the meaning of something, and from the experiment reach a conclusion in the abstract. A scientist, by contrast, might conduct a physical experiment and examine the resulting data to support or disprove a hypothesis.

So what good is philosophy? Its methods certainly help a person with critical thinking, information analysis, and "connecting the dots." The practice of philosophy has made possible great advances in math and science. Two of the greatest scientists of all time, Newton and Einstein, were also philosophers. In fact, Einstein's thought experiments are legendary in the physics community.

If you consider philosophy as "a way of thinking" or as the foundation for a world view or perspective, then we can break down this vast body of endeavor into two categories: Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy. But you have to consider these are generalizations. It simply is not true, for example, the Indian and Chinese philosophy are just variations of each other.

Generally, though, the difference between east and west is one of collective versus individual. Consider this experiment, which was repeatd several times:

• When Japanese people looked at a picture and were asked about it later, they could recall many details about the background but couldn't say what the picture was about.
• When Americans looked at the same picture and were asked about it later, they could tell you what it was about but could not recall any details.

That is, the Japanese would tell you there were four trees in the background but the Americans might not answer correctly as to whether there were any trees in the background. The Japanese could not tell you whether the lady in the foreground wore a hat, but the Americans could tell you what color the hat was and, yes, she was wearing a pearl necklace. This difference is cultural, arising from the philosophy in each culture.

One philosophy isn't better than another, they are just different. However, there's some bias in the literature. In Western literature, it's commonly represented that Western philosophers have a need to prove the truth while Eastern philosophers simply accept it; intimating that Westerners have a better grasp of what is true. In Eastern literature, this often gets expressed with the emphasis on how virtuous the Eastern approach is.

What's important (being philosophical, here) is not which philosophical model is "best" but that you have a model by which to examine the larger (and smaller) questions of life and the mysteries you encounter. That is the real job of the philosopher.

Some famous philosophical quotes

• “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle
• “Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's?” – Friedrich Nietzsche
• “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him” – Voltaire
• “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong” – Bertrand Russell
• “Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but of how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness” – Immanuel Kant
• “The life of man (in a state of nature) is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” – Thomas Hobbes