Originality of Philosophy

Essay by Andy3University, Master'sB+, February 1997

download word file, 3 pages 4.0

What is philosophy? What does a philosopher really do? Questions

like these can be answered in a review of Philosophy Now. What can

possibly be answered.....questions which have them. And what is it

that philosophers study? Generally, most philosophers study questions in

which there is no rational or justifiable answer. And the type of articles in the

magazine are very interesting because they elighten the reader to question the

answers. Some of the articles in this issue are "Bakunin: Anarchist or

Antichrist?", "Practical Solipsism", "Introduction to Ontology", "Orwell and

Philosophy", some other brief articles, an Internet page, and even some

classifieds. The overall view of this magazine was very intellectual and

professional because it did not contain any advertising throughout the

magazine. The articles are more in the manner meant for either philosophers

or someone in school studying Philosophy, or even anyone interested in a

very different approach to society.

An idea in the article "Practical Solipsism" reads: "Solipsism - the

idea that only I exist and that you, and all other material things in the world

are mere figments of my imagination - is one of those peculiar notions that

make everybody realize just how barmy philosophers truly are." Philosophy

is often translated as the love of wisdom or the love of truth. One way to get

a vague idea as to what philosophy is about is to dissect the subject and

investigate its skeleton. there are many branches in philosophy. Metaphysics

is"(after-physics, after Aristotle's book of physics.)", and has questions about

the nature of time, categories of existence, including god. Epistemology asks

what is knowledge? what is the difference between knowledge, belief and

opinion? Can we really know anything? How could we know that we did?

Logic questions the truth and even now employs...