What is Philosophy
Socrates, generally considered to be the forefather of
philosophy, was told by the Oracle (the voice of the Greek
Goddess Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom) that he was the wisest
person in all of Athens. "That cannot be," he said,
"for I know
so little." So he set out to set things right. He asked
those
wiser than him to explain things like truth, beauty, and justice.
Not surprisingly he found that those wise in the ways of state
had not had time to think about abstract things like justice.
They thought the answers to these questions were obvious, but
only because they had never really considered them. Their
opinions about truth, beauty, and justice were not based on
reason. Socrates' search became a search for the answers to
these questions. To a great extent, this search is what occupies
philosophers today. They ask questions about those things that
most of us, when we're not feeling reflective, think are obvious.
Some of the questions are the same ones that Socrates asked:
"What is truth?" "What makes something aesthetically
pleasing?"
"What is the best form of government?" "What is
the basis for
moral action?" "What is friendship?" And there
are other
questions: "Is the external world really as it appears to
us?"
""What is the nature of the mind?" "Am I
the same person I was
yesterday?" "What does it mean to say that two things
are the
same?"
Of course, philosophers don't just ask questions. They try to
answer the questions they ask. They attempt to reason clearly
about complex issues in order to figure out not just the answer
to the question, but what the question is as well. For
sometimes, the hardest thing about answering a question is
discovering what the question asks. And, of course, answering
one question often leads to another question. The activity of
the philosopher is spent asking questions, answering questions,
and asking more questions. Hopefully this process leads them
to
discovering what the world is really like!
Why don't you take a first step toward finding out what the world
is really like? Take a philosophy course!
Philosophy Courses at USL
Philosophy at USL
This page is designed and maintained by István S. N. Berkeley of
the Philosophy Program at USL. Please direct all comments and questions
to istvan@louisiana.edu
This page last revised: 26th March 1997.
Logo design by Leslie Schilling of the Humanities Resource Center, at USL.