What is Philosophy?
The discipline of Philosophy as it is taught and understood today began with Socrates, who used to live more than two thousand years ago in Athens, ancient Greek city-state. He used to stroll on the streets of Athens and ask simple questions about life, ethics, and knowledge to people who were considered experts in these areas. What he found was astounding. Nobody had any real idea about these basic things. This showed that people generally don’t bother themselves about thinking about the basic problems of life rather they take many things for granted. Philosophers, on the other hand, are those people of society who don’t take things for granted. It is the spirit of philosophy to question the basic presuppositions of our life. So, philosophers since the time of Socrates have been questioning the fundamental assumptions of our life. For example, they ask is there any foundation of morality? Is there any purpose of life? Does God exist? Can we know anything with certainty? Is there any reality which is beyond this physical universe? These are just few questions. Philosophy is full of such questions. But, philosophy is not just about questions, there is a purpose behind asking all these questions, which is, to get the big picture of life. Philosophers try to get a clear picture of life in which everything has its due place. This big picture helps us live our life, take actions, make decisions, deal with others and so on. You would probably be thinking how does philosophy work? How does it provide answers to such problems? Well, philosophers provide the answers to the big questions of life in the form of logical arguments. They provide rational justification for their answers. Moreover, they analyze, reply or criticize the arguments given by others. Logic is the standard for judging the validity of any position in Philosophy. Only those answers are accepted which are rational. Socrates himself was well-verse in logical thinking. He used to build logical argument by constantly questioning others and asking justifications for their answers. In other words, philosophers engage with the basic problems of life and come up with their own answers to those problems. They often give arguments in favor of their answers. These arguments are critically judged by other philosophers, who in turn give their own answers to the same problems. In this way, philosophy progresses. The history of philosophy can be divided into four general periods: Ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary. Furthermore, with respect to the subject matter, philosophy can be divided into five broad categories: epistemology, ontology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.
Epistemology is the inquiry of knowledge.
Ontology is the inquiry of being.
Metaphysics is the inquiry of reality.
Ethics is the inquiry of morality.
Aesthetics is the inquiry of beauty.
