Enlighten me. Please. =)

[NocturnalDreamer]

basically, I know almost nothing about philosophy...? what's it about? I'm really interested. I'm one who never likes to get into something which i have no idea about. Is a question like "Whats life all about OR what is the meaning of life" something to do with philosophy? does philosophy deal with all kind of questions that science itself couldn't explain? or is it just based on rational thinking itself? I've done substantial research bout philosophy in wikipedia and this is their definition : --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Every definition of philosophy is controversial. The field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era. It is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason. There is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to answer. Although the word "philosophy" originates in Ancient Greece, many figures in the history of other cultures have addressed similar topics in similar ways.The philosophers of East and South Asia are discussed in Eastern philosophy, while the philosophers of North Africa and the Middle East, because of their strong interactions with Europe, are usually considered part of Western philosophy.] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why does it have to be so confusing =/ anyone mind summarising that for me? A basic general overview of philosophy =) to the extent where I'll get really excited to know more!! =D thank you

[Carôusoul]

Philosophy as a word can mean many things, for example a life philosophy motto or whatever. But as a subject usually it is hard to define. It is asking questions about the nature of existence which transcend what we think we know in other subjects really. There are many many different fields of Philosophy. For example ethics, which studies how we should morally behave, and the correct moral system {usually assuming there isn't a God}. Epistemology, is one of the most important, it is the study of knowledge. What do you know? It asks questions such as how do you know you are sitting there, right now? What is knowledge itself, how do we know anything is real? If you've seen the matrix, the whole plot is a reference to Descartes' Meditations on first philosophy; which regards epistemology, and is about doubting our senses. Philosophy of Religion studies whether a God exists, and a few other things but primarily is concerned with the existence of God at fundamental level. A philosopher is somebody who thinks about the world; and tries to really understand what is fundamentally going on. You will have heard of many famous philosopher such as Sartre, Hume, Kant, Plato, Bentham. These span most of civilised time and each presents different ideas which you can read about. For example Bentham proposed the idea of utilitarianism, the idea that the moral action in any given situation is to do what creates the most happiness in the most people; various other philosophers such as Kant have disputed and presented new ideas. There is no fixed way, there are arguments on all sides, and philosophy really concerns our exploration of these arguments. In epistemology for example, John Locke suggested an idea called representative realism in which he argued that what you experience through your senses every day is in fact not as the objects themselves are, but more like an image created by your mind in the form of sense data. And so we can never truly know how objects exist objectively, because of the restraints of sense data. What you see is an image created in your brain, and it is not the thing itself. Opposition to this stance is in the form of naive or Direct realism, which claims that in fact what we experience with our senses is directly the object; and we are seeing it as it is. Bishop Berkeley on the other hand suggested an idea called idealism, in which in fact there are no external objects to the mind. In fact all object's existence is what we call mind dependent. All the world you experience are only ideas. In philosophy we look into the hundreds of arguments about the nature of existence on all sides of the spectrum, and we present some of our own and try to formulate a model of what reality really means. This is very brief obviously but it gives a foot in the water I guess. I'm not really very good at introductions.. so you'll have to excuse me, heh.

[NocturnalDreamer]

Philosophy as a word can mean many things, for example a life philosophy motto or whatever. But as a subject usually it is hard to define. It is asking questions about the nature of existence which transcend what we think we know in other subjects really. There are many many different fields of Philosophy. For example ethics, which studies how we should morally behave, and the correct moral system {usually assuming there isn't a God}. Epistemology, is one of the most important, it is the study of knowledge. What do you know? It asks questions such as how do you know you are sitting there, right now? What is knowledge itself, how do we know anything is real? If you've seen the matrix, the whole plot is a reference to Descartes' Meditations on first philosophy; which regards epistemology, and is about doubting our senses. Philosophy of Religion studies whether a God exists, and a few other things but primarily is concerned with the existence of God at fundamental level. A philosopher is somebody who thinks about the world; and tries to really understand what is fundamentally going on. You will have heard of many famous philosopher such as Sartre, Hume, Kant, Plato, Bentham. These span most of civilised time and each presents different ideas which you can read about. For example Bentham proposed the idea of utilitarianism, the idea that the moral action in any given situation is to do what creates the most happiness in the most people; various other philosophers such as Kant have disputed and presented new ideas. There is no fixed way, there are arguments on all sides, and philosophy really concerns our exploration of these arguments. In epistemology for example, John Locke suggested an idea called representative realism in which he argued that what you experience through your senses every day is in fact not as the objects themselves are, but more like an image created by your mind in the form of sense data. And so we can never truly know how objects exist objectively, because of the restraints of sense data. What you see is an image created in your brain, and it is not the thing itself. Opposition to this stance is in the form of naive or Direct realism, which claims that in fact what we experience with our senses is directly the object; and we are seeing it as it is. Bishop Berkeley on the other hand suggested an idea called idealism, in which in fact there are no external objects to the mind. In fact all object's existence is what we call mind dependent. All the world you experience are only ideas. In philosophy we look into the hundreds of arguments about the nature of existence on all sides of the spectrum, and we present some of our own and try to formulate a model of what reality really means. This is very brief obviously but it gives a fott in the water I guess. I'm not really very good at introductions.. so you'll have to excuse me, heh. ohmygawd. thats so deeeep!! haha to me that is =) but thanks really! I think I'm really interested in Epistemology. I tend to ask myself all kinds of question, whenever I'm alone with nothing to do. I'm not that kind of person that thinks so much though. I tend to accept the way life is. I'm after all, taking up ACCA as my education path. So its normal for people like me to just accept things and don't ask bout anything. So even if it is so difficult to understand, I'll just nod my head and say "uhmm..I think I understand" then I'll simply memorize whatever it says =P Seems a little like law. Just that law is more...hmm what do I call it...makes more sense I guess? nahh =P its okay, thanks for telling anyway, in a way, It made me more confuse, but its not your fault, it is my level of understanding(I'm not that all good in english ) but I learned something new too =) like Epistemology for instance I really like your signature though =) its Gray Fox from MSG 1 right? Forgive me If I'm wrong

[Carôusoul]

ohmygawd. thats so deeeep!! haha to me that is =) but thanks really! I think I'm really interested in Epistemology. I tend to ask myself all kinds of question, whenever I'm alone with nothing to do. I'm not that kind of person that thinks so much though. I tend to accept the way life is. I'm after all, taking up ACCA as my education path. So its normal for people like me to just accept things and don't ask bout anything. So even if it is so difficult to understand, I'll just nod my head and say "uhmm..I think I understand" then I'll simply memorize whatever it says =P Seems a little like law. Just that law is more...hmm what do I call it...makes more sense I guess? nahh =P its okay, thanks for telling anyway, in a way, It made me more confuse, but its not your fault, it is my level of understanding(I'm not that all good in english ) but I learned something new too =) like Epistemology for instance I really like your signature though =) its Gray Fox from MSG 1 right? Forgive me If I'm wrong Yeah its quite hard to describe, because it's such a wide subject, especially if you're trying to understand it in your second language. I think it is far deeper than law. Law concerns the mechanics of our system we live by, but philosophy asks new questions about the system itself, and about why we should have one, and how do we know the system is real. Heh. Yeah, try and find a malaysian copy of "Meditations on first philosophy" by Rene Descartes if you are truly interested in epistemology, it's a brilliant start point. It is quite easy to read if you take it at a reasonable pace. Yeah it is Gray Fox. He's rather awesome.

[NocturnalDreamer]

Yeah its quite hard to describe, because it's such a wide subject, especially if you're trying to understand it in your second language. I think it is far deeper than law. Law concerns the mechanics of our system we live by, but philosophy asks new questions about the system itself, and about why we should have one, and how do we know the system is real. Heh. Yeah, try and find a malaysian copy of "Meditations on first philosophy" by Rene Descartes if you are truly interested in epistemology, it's a brilliant start point. It is quite easy to read if you take it at a reasonable pace. Yeah it is Gray Fox. He's rather awesome. I'm really interested in lots of things lately...I'm not sure why. It suddenly came to my mind that there's so much to do and I've only done so little in life so I guess learning bout philosophy would be in my 'to-do list' now hmm actually english is my first language =) I speak english 90% of the time. Its just that I've never truly read lots of books. Because the education level in my country for english is not required to be really high =D As I've been scoring in english all this time, I tend to slack, and the more I age, the more people I meet, and their english....just amaze me! haha sometimes it would be like, they'll chat with me on MSN, and I'll be searching in answers.com for the meaning of those words. Pathetic, really -.- yeah, I'm taking up LAW too, and its really killing me already. I wonder if philosophy would actually really drive me nuts =/ but I'm sure it won't if I'm interested in it =D haha I would definately get a hold of that Malaysian version whenever I have some time. I'm a Malaysian xD hahahahaha. Meditations on first philospophy, maybe I'll get it this weekend =D sounds really interesting, I hope it won't end up together with one of my 'half-read books' at the corner of my room =D I love MSG. It's like one of the 'bestest' game ever made in Play Station 1.

[Carôusoul]

I'm really interested in lots of things lately...I'm not sure why. It suddenly came to my mind that there's so much to do and I've only done so little in life so I guess learning bout philosophy would be in my 'to-do list' now hmm actually english is my first language =) I speak english 90% of the time. Its just that I've never truly read lots of books. Because the education level in my country for english is not required to be really high =D As I've been scoring in english all this time, I tend to slack, and the more I age, the more people I meet, and their english....just amaze me! haha sometimes it would be like, they'll chat with me on MSN, and I'll be searching in answers.com for the meaning of those words. Pathetic, really -.- yeah, I'm taking up LAW too, and its really killing me already. I wonder if philosophy would actually really drive me nuts =/ but I'm sure it won't if I'm interested in it =D haha I would definately get a hold of that Malaysian version whenever I have some time. I'm a Malaysian xD hahahahaha. Meditations on first philospophy, maybe I'll get it this weekend =D sounds really interesting, I hope it won't end up together with one of my 'half-read books' at the corner of my room =D I love MSG. It's like one of the 'bestest' game ever made in Play Station 1. Aha. Meditations is rather hard i guess maybe; if you want a simple easy introduction I'd suggest "What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy " By Thomas Nagel Its an awesome book and its easy to read and clearly explains alot about it. Anyway good luck if you're planning to look into it. On second thoughts I would suggest the Nagel book over Descartes because Descartes can be rather intimidating. Yeah. Cool. Im on MGS3 right now. Don't know what to make of it.

[NocturnalDreamer]

Aha. Meditations is rather hard i guess maybe; if you want a simple easy introduction I'd suggest "What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy " By Thomas Nagel Its an awesome book and its easy to read and clearly explains alot about it. Anyway good luck if you're planning to look into it. On second thoughts I would suggest the Nagel book over Descartes because Descartes can be rather intimidating. Yeah. Cool. Im on MGS3 right now. Don't know what to make of it. alright thanks =) appreciate it alot. I would get the book whenever I'm free. I just hope I'll remember bout it =D ahh MGS3 =) have fun. I stopped at 1. didn't bother getting a PS2, so won't be able to play it I guess. anyways, have fun =) thanks!

[Never]

I also recommend Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy if you decide to get into serious study. It is a fantastic overview.

[NocturnalDreamer]

I also recommend Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy if you decide to get into serious study. It is a fantastic overview. alright thanks. But I think that'll wait. I won't rush things now, kinda busy at the moment =) thanks for the suggestion though.

[Grod]

Any books on economics are always fun, John Nash, possibly. That could deal with philosophy, 'economic philosophy' at least. Game theory and Decision theory are useful.

[NocturnalDreamer]

Any books on economics are always fun, John Nash, possibly. That could deal with philosophy, 'economic philosophy' at least. Game theory and Decision theory are useful. that day, I went to my college's library, it is written there 'philosophy' , so i got really excited, stop reading my law book, and went there immediately, and guess what...I found MORE law books! Awesomee! i didn't know philosophy has got anything to do with law? or did they put it at the wrong column?

[Never]

There are philosophies for everything really. The most common usage is in the search for truth; that's all. A sort of midway between the limitations of science and the assumptions of religion.

[Carôusoul]

that day, I went to my college's library, it is written there 'philosophy' , so i got really excited, stop reading my law book, and went there immediately, and guess what...I found MORE law books! Awesomee! i didn't know philosophy has got anything to do with law? or did they put it at the wrong column? Philosophy as a word has many meanings: Philosophy for life Philosophy of business Philosophy of nature etc What we usually mean is the subject of philosophy in itself which a well defined subject apart from these other uses. This includes what has been described by Never and I. Look for specific books rather than going to "philosophy" because it's a wide berth. Although I usually find it quite good in library philosophy sections, clear.

[NocturnalDreamer]

Philosophy as a word has many meanings: Philosophy for life Philosophy of business Philosophy of nature etc What we usually mean is the subject of philosophy in itself which a well defined subject apart from these other uses. This includes what has been described by Never and I. Look for specific books rather than going to "philosophy" because it's a wide berth. Although I usually find it quite good in library philosophy sections, clear. oh. Now I understand, there's a little "philosophy" in every aspect of life, is that what you're trying to say? if yes, then thats awesome! God, it is such a wide topic, and its just so interesting. but I sometimes can confuse between science and philosophy, is philosophy a small area of science? what I know about philosophy now is, questions about everything =/ that is difficult to explain...?

[Never]

Actually it is the reverse; science is an area of philosophy, though not small. Science has philosophy to thank for it's creation.