• Question: wht is philosophy

    Asked by siddiq to Louise, Michaela, Sian, Steve, Yvette on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Louise Johnson

      Louise Johnson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      It’s sort of the study of ideas and thoughts. It’s like science in that it uses reason to understand the world, but you don’t do experiments.

      Most universities offer degree courses in philosophy. I gather it’s a fun subject in which the students stay up all night drinking and arguing about whether they all REALLY see the same colour when they look at a blue sky.

    • Photo: Steven Kiddle

      Steven Kiddle answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      From wikipedia:

      “Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[1][2] It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions (such as mysticism, myth, or the arts) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument”

      Questions like:
      What is the meaning of life?
      Do we exist?
      etc.

      are philosophical questions

    • Photo: Michaela Livingstone

      Michaela Livingstone answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Here’s what I put for the same question asked by someone else: Philosophy looks at what we, as humans, think about, so for example, things like: what’s right and wrong, politics, the nature of space and time, what it is to be a person rather than just an animal, how we have properties, whether there is a God, etc. In general it involves the making arguments and then… well, pulling them apart really heh.

    • Photo: Yvette Wilson

      Yvette Wilson answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think of philosophy as the way in which we try to understand the world. For example, i try to understand what I observe in biology in terms of how it has evolved, but maybe the theory of evolution is wrong (there’s no evidence that its wrong yet) and there is a different explanation for the diversity of life. philosophy is really important for science to think about what makes you interpret your results how you do.

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