booktwo.jpg Philosophy is the greatest achievement of man. Throughout history it has created the society in which we live, confirming our ability to think - to rise above the animal kingdom. And perhaps the lack of philosophising today heralds the death of thinking.
So does this mean we are returning to the instinctuality and amorality found in the animal kingdom? Even this possibility should be seen as a warning that it is time for philosophy - for thinking about our situation - to come back.

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

The first person thought to have used the word ‘philosophy’ was Pythagoras, the discoverer of mathematics at the dawn of Greek history. The word comes from ‘philo,’ meaning ‘love,’ and ‘sophia,’ meaning ‘wisdom.’
Thus, a philosopher is a lover of wisdom. Traditionally, philosophy was the first practice to break up the world into specialisations with specific branches of philosophy. There are four main branches.

BRANCHES OF THOUGHT

The first is epistemology, an understanding of what knowledge is. Then we have metaphysics, concerned with the nature of ‘being’ and reality. Third, we have ethics, or how man should behave in the world. And finally, we have politics, or how man should organise his world.
But in the history of philosophy that follows, we will see how the specialisations were nothing more than an easy way to explain specific areas of a wider, holistic knowledge. This fundamental fact of knowledge - that things are really holistic, or as one - has been forgotten today.
I hope to achieve at least one post per week in this series.

© Anthony North, February 2008

See History of Philosophy on sidebar/pages for more posts in this series