What Is Philosophy?

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)*

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!

For a more detailed account of the nature of philosophy, read Dr. Korcz's paper "What Is Philosophy?"
 
 

* Photo courtesy of The Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University.

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