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Definition: philosophy from The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology

In that most hackneyed of phrases, the search for the truth. There are various ways to conduct this search that properly belong within the discipline and various domains of nature into which it has, over the millennia, led. The most convenient division is to break philosophy into two broad subdisciplines: EPISTEMOLOGY and METAPHYSICS. The former encompasses efforts to understand the origins, nature and limits of thought and human knowledge, the latter embraces similar attempts to comprehend the ultimate reality of existence. Other prominent branches are aesthetics, ethics and logic.

philosophy

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
[Gr.,=love of wisdom], study of the ultimate reality, causes, and principles underlying being and thinking. It has many aspects and different manifestations according to the problems involved and the method of approach and emphasis used by the individual philosopher. This article deals with the nature and development of Western philosophical thought. Eastern philosophy, while founded in religion, contains rigorously developed systems; for these, see Buddhism ; Confucianism ; Hinduism ; Islam ; Jainism ; Shinto ; Taoism ; Vedanta ; and related articles. This search for truth began, in the Western world, when the Greeks first established (c.600 B.C. ) inquiry independent of theological creeds. Philosophy is distinguished from theology in that philosophy rejects dogma and deals with speculation rather than faith. Philosophy differs from science in that both the natural and the social sciences base their theories wholly on established fact, whereas philosophy also covers areas of inquiry…
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The history of philosophy is notoriously complex, primarily because its focus and concerns do not remain static over time. Despite this, it is still possible to outline the features of the world's main philosophical traditions, bearing in mind that the philosophy of any one period is determined by…
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Full text Article Philosophy

From World of Sociology, Gale
Plato (The Library of Congress).
The term “philosophy” refers to systems of beliefs or ideas about the universe and humankind’s place in it. Philosophy as a discipline of thought addresses innumerable questions about the nature of knowledge, understanding, logic, language , reality, and causality . Philosophical thought attempts to…
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Full text Article philosophy

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Study of the nature of reality, knowledge, ethics and existence by means of rational inquiry. Western philosophy began among the Greeks with the work of Thales of Miletus. Later pre-Socratic philosophers included Pythagoras , Empedocles , Anaxagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus , Zeno of Elea and…
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Full text Article philosophy

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
[Gr.,=love of wisdom], study of the ultimate reality, causes, and principles underlying being and thinking. It has many aspects and different manifestations according to the problems involved and the method of approach and emphasis used by the individual philosopher. This article deals with the…
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Full text Article philosophy

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome
The history of Roman philosophy began in 155 B.C.E. with the arrival in the Eternal City of an Athenian embassy composed of three eminent Greek intellectuals: the Academic Carneades (214–129 B.C.E.), the Stoic Diogenes, and the Peripatetic Critolaus. Carneades astonished his Roman hosts with his…
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Full text Article Philosophy

From The Classical Tradition
The last of the great Neoplatonic philosophers who wrote in Greek was Proclus Diadochus. The word Diadochus, "Successor"—a title, not a proper name—signifies that Proclus, as head of an Athenian philosophical school in the 5th century ce , belonged to a sometimes interrupted line that reached back…
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Full text Article PHILOSOPHY

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Philosophy is (at least) one of the subjects of this book. It is sometimes defined as ‘the love of WISDOM ’, from the Greek, philia , love, and sophia , wisdom. Some people say it began with the Greeks, a couple of centuries before the birth of Christ, but this would be to ignore the subtlety and…
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Full text Article PHILOSOPHY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Australian-born British philosopher The more comprehensive a science becomes the closer it comes to philosophy, so that it may become difficult to say where the science leaves off and philosophy begins. Space, Time, and Deity: The Gifford Lectures at Glasgow, 1916-1918 (Volume 1 ) Introduction (p. 2…
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Full text Article Philosophy

From Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
© CHRISTINE OSBORNE PICTURES/ALAMY Muslim...
Philosophical speculation in Islamic culture has triple roots in theology ( kalam ), philosophy proper ( falsafa ), and mysticism ( tasawwuf ). The genesis of Muslim philosophical theology is manifested in the marriage of Greek logic with monotheistic apologetics in the school of Muʿtazilah…
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Full text Article philosophy

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Critical examination of the rational grounds of our most fundamental beliefs and logical analysis of the basic concepts employed in the expression of such beliefs. Philosophy may also be defined as reflection on the varieties of human experience, or as the rational, methodical, and systematic…
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