Defining Philosophy Paper

Philosophy comes from the two Greek words philein, which means 'to love,' and sophia, which means 'knowledge' or 'wisdom" (Moore & Bruder, 2002). This is not the only definition of philosophy as philosophy is a vast subject. My interpretation of philosophy is a field of study where one thinks "outside of the box" in the search for knowledge or wisdom that does not involve scientific explanations.

There is not one answer in the nature of philosophical questions. The nature of many philosophical questions concern norms. The application of norms, also known as standards, occurs when people decide whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly. Normative questions ask about the value of something. The field of science explains how things are but does not tell us how things ought to be. Sometimes philosophical questions arise when different people believe different things. For example, some people believe that a cause-and-effect relationship exists in everything.

Detail of The School of Athens by Raffaello Sanzio...

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If a person drinks spoiled milk, he or she will get sick. There are others that believe when one voluntarily decides to do something- nothing made them decide to do that. This refutes the cause-and-effect relationship belief. Then there are many other ways to look at the situation. Is every happening caused? Or are some happenings uncaused? Or is it perhaps that decisions are not "happenings"? These questions cause a dilemma that involves philosophizing. The importance of some philosophical questions is obvious and vast, for example, is there a God who is attentive, caring, and responsive to us and is abortion morally wrong? A justification would have to be given for not contemplating them. But some philosophical questions are of more or less obscure, and seemingly only academic or theoretical, consequence. Not everything philosophers consider is dynamite. But then, every field has its...