American History

Man is basically a being of curiosity. He searches the world for whatever it is he believes is worthy of the search. However, almost always the external physical world may be chaotic and disorganized and man is left dejected and disappointed and it is during this time that he channels the search within himself. Perhaps he is just looking for the answers to his most pressing problems but perhaps he also begins asking himself the more serious philosophic questions, or the questions that seek the answers to whys and hows of all things both within him and outside of him. This is therefore mans philosophical quest, or perhaps only the beginning of it. The Irish educationalist and writer Edmond Holmes defined philosophy as a search for ultimate truth (1). But then again what is truth Perhaps it is something that has proof, yet what then is proof and how can we know we have proven something to be true When one begins to ask himself questions of this sort, then he may unconsciously be delving into philosophy.

THE DEFINITIONS OF PHILOSOPHY
Aside from Holmes, many other different definitions have been formulated by several other authors and professors of philosophy regarding philosophy and philosophical thinking. However, all of which have their basis still on mans quest for the truth.

Philosophy as a Critical Evaluation. Two very important words are fit for the definition of philosophy critical and evaluation. Philosophy is a critical evaluation of all facts and experience, or basically anything that can be known. Critical implies that the philosopher is supposed to view all data with searching scrutiny and at the same time, rejecting all kinds of bias or prejudice (Sahakian  Sahakian vii).

The aforementioned definition of philosophy implies that a philosopher or someone who is into philosophy does not just peruse data and simply retells them. The philosopher evaluates data which means to say that he tries and definitely makes an effort to objectively determine whether the subject at hand is right or wrong, good or evil, practical or impractical, or maybe reasonable or unreasonable. The word objective somehow sets him off from the mediocre observer who merely makes judgments out of personal opinion. In such a case, the observer gives a mere opinion but what the philosopher gives is an evaluation. There might be a trouble with semantics in this aspect but this confusion is resolved by the word effort. In the observers case, there is no effort when he makes an opinion or when he thinks of one. His views and judgments of facts are based on his experience as well as what he has heard from his immediate environment  his family, friends and significant others, or even celebrities. In the philosopher, however, feelings and emotions are set aside and nothing is automatically said. Everything is viewed from all sides, which implies that the philosopher is an open-minded and unbiased individual who, even upon being punched by someone, would still think how he would react if he were Spinoza, or what would Hume say in such a situation, or if Kant would be able to consider it morally good. This is philosophy and it is indeed a critical evaluation.

The term critical as it is used in this context is not exactly synonymous with criticize, which means to find faults. The latter is easy but the former is difficult as it means an objective analysis. Therefore, when asked if the killer named John is evil, a mere observer would immediately say something like John is an evil man because he killed someone while the philosopher would rather say that It depends on what motivated John to do the killing and it also depends further on whether such a motivation was forced or not.

Philosophy as a Thoughtful Inquiry. Philosophy is a thoughtful inquiry. Thoughtful inquiry means the asking of philosophic questions (Lavine 5).

The above definition brings to light the fact that one is supposed to keep asking philosophic questions for it would be unimaginable if this world had no more people who penetrated below the facts of everyday life to think about what is real, true, valuable, just and meaningful in human life (Lavine 5). This implies that if everyone stopped asking the deeper questions in life, then the world and all those who live in it would be reduced to a community of mechanical men, women and children moving physical objects who do meaningless actions and who speak using empty chatter. (5)

What then is the philosophic question and of what use is it Professor Lavine enumerates various examples of such questions instead of explaining their nature. We have to keep asking questions of metaphysics that include what is the truth and what is real Is this material thing, this rock real Was Berkeley right when he said that nothing is real We also have to ask questions on ethics What is right and wrong, good and evil Or like Leibniz we should ask if evil really exists In the name of theodicy, one also has to keep asking questions like what is God and if God really exists then why do we have evil in this world Was Spinoza right in saying that everything is in God Aside from this, one should also ask questions on political philosophy what is the best form of government and should the roles of government officials not overlap Was Kant right in saying that the ideal form of government shall be one with no standing armies, governed by a republican civil constitution and should agree with world citizenship And for epistemology, one should keep asking questions like how do you know Was Hume right in saying that cause and effect are nothing but events in pure unrelated sequence Lavine further states that enormous vitality and profound conviction are what can be gained by asking philosophic questions (1-5). The greatest challenge for every individual therefore is to remain humble in order to keep asking questions and tell himself, just like Socrates, that There is only one thing I know and that I know nothing.

Philosophy as a Technical Subject. Philosophy is not all thinking but also technicalities. C. E. M. Joad says that philosophy is an exceedingly difficult subject and that most books on philosophy are unintelligible even to the intelligent man (Joad 9). The subject of philosophy is the universe, which naturally is complex. Clearly there is absolutely no reason why this 15-billion-year-old universe should appear intelligible to someone simply for the mere fact that he is born in the modern era.

Joad also likens philosophy to a form of paradoxical learning where the more you know, the more you become aware of the extent of your ignorance (10). This is a very discouraging statement which can be no different from a vicious circle. Philosophy then appears futile and neither enormous vitality (Lavine 5) nor wisdom (Durant xxvii), which are considered long-term benefits of the study of philosophy, may not suffice.

Perhaps two other things that help give philosophy that image of dreadfulness may include expression of obscurity and obscurity of expression (Joad 10). Most philosophical ideas are already obscure and vague thus no matter how good a writer the philosopher was, the material at hand certainly defied even the clearest combination of English words. Spinoza seemed to have been a good writer but his propositions in Ethics is not as easy to understand as it probably was when he wrote it. The other problem is obscurity of expression, which makes philosophy all the more difficult. What Joad means is that even the clearest and most unintelligible concepts and principles may appear unnecessarily vague when written by someone not really that good at writing. Kant is known to have written his greatest works in a very obscure way and was described as one who not only used technical words but also employed passages whose meaning can only be fully understood if the reader himself uses special senses and a slightly different perspective. It is said that much confusion would have been saved if Kant himself had taken more pains with his writing (Joad 13).

Philosophy as a Tool of Enlightenment. Durant had a rather positive view regarding the study of philosophy and the nature of philosophical thought itself. He states that science can give us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom (xxvii). He further Bacon when he mentions that we should seek ye first the good things of the mind and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will never be felt (xxvi). These aforementioned statements somehow allude to Hippocrates who once said that a sound mind almost always brings about a sound body. Certainly, according to Durant, philosophy is that area of knowledge which if absorbed by the mind will cause happiness in ones being. Lastly the statements imply that a mere study of philosophy will bring about peace of mind in the individual. Philosophy then can be operationally defined as a stress reliever.

Philosophy may be or may just be a hypothetical interpretation of the unknown just like metaphysics, and of the inexactly known just like ethics and politics (xxvi) but it is a gloriously enlightening process that involves mentally connecting one thing to another and integrating one concept with the other. Durant states that a fact is nothing except in relation to ideas and that a fact is not complete except in relation to a purpose and a whole (xxvii) yet it is only philosophy that can weave the connections and integrate everything.

Philosophy as a Fivefold Study. Durant also defined philosophy as a branch of learning includes five different yet interrelated fields of study and discourse namely logic, ethics, politics, aesthetics, and metaphysics (xxvii). Logic is the study of ideal method in thought in research as well as induction and deduction. Almost all other studies are based on its principles. Fallacies and false patterns of thinking and analyzing are also studied in logic. Ethics is the study of ideal conduct. It is the study of what is moral, immoral and amoral, of what is good and evil, and right and wrong. Politics is the study of ideal social organization, of the kinds of governments and of the movements that continually shape them such as anarchism and feminism. Aesthetics is the study of ideal form and beauty, of what things are beautiful and perfect. Lastly, metaphysics is the study of the ultimate reality of all things, of the nature of reality and of the differences, interrelation and supposed interaction between mind and matter.

CONCLUSION
Philosophy, as a search for truth, may be defined in several ways a critical evaluation of facts and experiences, a thoughtful inquiry on subjects that range from the nature of reality to politics to morality, a tool that serves to enlighten the confused mind in order to reduce chaos into order, a difficult and rigorous technical and academic discussion of the nature of all things, and a fivefold study of the principles of logic, ethics, asthetics, politics and metaphysics. Philosophy may be defined in many other ways like an inquiry into the nature of the minds of the greatest philosophers, a way of thinking, or perhaps even a lifestyle. However, no matter how we define the word or the study itself, philosophy essentially remains as in its etymology, philos and sophia, that is, a love of wisdom.