Simple Definition Of Philosophy Free Will And#

Simple Definition Of Philosophy Free Will And

So philosophy is about making sense of that situation that we find ourselves in.вЂќ ~ Clare CarlisleI think itвЂ™s thinking fundamentally clearly and well about the nature of reality and our place in it, so as to understand better what goes on around us, and what our contribution is to that reality, and its effect on us.вЂќ ~ Barry Smith a process of reflection on the deepest concepts, that is structures of thought, that make up the way in which we think about the world. There are all sorts of possible ways of interpreting it and finding meaning in the world and in the lives that we live. But whenever somebody asks me about what the concept of time is, I realize I donвЂ™t know.вЂќ ~ Catalin Avramescu(Cue in Richard FeynmanвЂ™s similarly-spirited answer to what science is.)A few common themes begin to emerge, most notably the idea of critical thinking:Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on anything you care to be interested in.вЂќ ~ Richard BradleyI donвЂ™t think itвЂ™s any one thing, but I think generally it involves being critical and reflective about things that most people take for granted.вЂќ ~ Allen BuchananPhilosophy is critical thinking: trying to become aware of how oneвЂ™s own thinking works, of all the things one takes for granted, of the way in which oneвЂ™s own thinking shapes the things oneвЂ™s thinking about.вЂќ ~ Don CupittMost simply put itвЂ™s about making sense of all thisвЂ¦ We find ourselves in a world that we havenвЂ™t chosen. When nobody asks me about it, I know. For example, f youвЂ™re arguing about free will and youвЂ™re trying to decide whether to be a compatibilist or incompatibilist вЂ” is free will compatible with causal determinism? вЂ” what youвЂ™re discovering is what problems and what benefits you get from saying that it is compatible, and what problems and benefits you get from saying itвЂ™s incompatible.вЂќ ~ Peter AdamsonPhilosophy is the successful love of thinking.вЂќ ~ John ArmstrongItвЂ™s a little bit like what Augustine famously said about the concept of time.

ItвЂ™s the answer that Friedrich Schlegel gave in his Athenaeum Fragments: philosophy is a way of trying to be a systematic spirit without having a system.вЂќ ~ Raymond GeussPhilosophy is thinking as clearly as possible about the most fundamental concepts that reach through all the disciplines.вЂќ ~ Anthony Kenny is a moral entrepreneur. That means dealing with questions that are open to informed reasonable disagreement by providing new concepts that can be superseded in the future if more economic solutions can be found вЂ” but itвЂ™s a matter of rational agreement.вЂќ ~ Luciano FloridiIвЂ™m afraid I have a very unhelpful answer to that, because itвЂ™s only a negative answer. But for me itвЂ™s the gadfly image, the Socratic gadfly: refusing to accept any platitudes or accepted wisdom without examining it.вЂќ ~ Donna DickensonI think it used to be an enquiry into whatвЂ™s true and how people should live itвЂ™s distantly related to that still, but IвЂ™d say the distance is growing rather than narrowing.вЂќ ~ John DunnPhilosophy is conceptual engineering. The categories in terms of which they are posed are ones which prevent experiments being carried out to answer them, so weвЂ™re thrown back to trying to answer them on the basis of evidence we can accumulate.вЂќ ~ Paul SnowdonPhilosophy is what I was told as an undergraduate women couldnвЂ™t do * вЂ” by an eminent philosopher who had best remain nameless. It should say something further about them that can help people.вЂќ ~ Tony CoadyPhilosophy is the name we give to a collection of questions which are of deep interest to us and for which there isnвЂ™t any specialist way of answering.

I became a philosopher because I wanted to be able to talk about many, many things, ideally with knowledge, but sometimes not quite the amount of knowledge that I would need if I were to be a specialist in them. I will tell you why I became a philosopher. MooreI canвЂ™t answer that directly. So the question then is вЂWhat is wisdom?вЂ™ And I think wisdom is understanding what really matters in the world.вЂќ ~ Thomas PoggeIвЂ™m hard pressed to say, but one thing that is certainly true is that вЂWhat is Philosophy?вЂ™ is itself a strikingly philosophical question.вЂќ ~ A.

I regard it as involving the kind of questions where yourвЂ™e not trying to find out how your ideas latch on to the world, whether your ideas are true or not, in the way that science is doing, but more about how your ideas hang together. And thatвЂ™s what philosophy is.вЂќ ~ David PapineauI regard philosophy as a mode of enquiry rather than a particular set of subjects. It requires an untangling of presuppositions: figuring out that our thinking is being driven by ideas we didnвЂ™t even realize that we had. And you might think scientists do that too, but thereвЂ™s a certain kind of question whose difficulty canвЂ™t be resolved by getting more empirical evidence. And plurality and complexity are very, very important to me.вЂќ ~ Alexander NehemasA number of philosophers are particularly concerned with teasing out the difference between science and philosophy:Philosophy is thinking hard about the most difficult problems that there are.