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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

What is philosophy?


Before defining it, let me share Douglas J. Futuyma’s few remarks (taken from “Evolution, 2nd Edition, Chapter 11, page 282),
………..When Darwin offered a purely natural, materialistic alternative to argument from design, he not only shook the foundation of theology and philosophy, but brought every aspect of study of life into the realm of science………………. the future cannot cause material events in present. Thus the concepts of goals or purposes have no place in biology (or in any natural sciences), except in studies of human behavior………………………………
By keeping in mind that human behavior is an exceptional case in study of natural sciences…. now let move to definition of philosophy by Will Durant (Taken from “The pleasures of philosophy, A Survey of Human Life and Destiny”, page xii),
…………..Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is self discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty…………………….
When people claim that they have shaken the foundation of philosophy… they just embarrass themselves by showing their ignorance…. Philosophy in first place is the “love of wisdom”. Wisdom is primarily study of human nature and behavior…. If a philosopher has interests in other disciplines, his other works can’t be called philosophy….. this is the main mistake that is usually done…. People include, theology,  politics, natural sciences under philosophy………….In fact only those parts of religion, language, culture, politics, economics and natural sciences that is related to human nature and human behavior come under philosophy…………..
Philosophy does not produce culture but it says how a culture affects human behavior? Is it numbing our senses or sharpening them to life. Philosophers do not legislate laws or run for election however they analyze the laws and system of governance…. Philosophers do not run lab experiments or do not collect data at field surveys however they analyze the interpretations  and generalizations based on data and observations from filed and lab experiments…….. Philosophers do not run businesses but they analyze how the businesses are run… so I say, Darwin’s theory didn’t shook the foundation of philosophy but it dusted off philosophy… from irrelevant issues that have been made her less visible………………………………..

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