Etymologically ‘philosophy’
is Greek word ΦολοφοΦια. It means love of wisdom. Before Pythagoras, people were
related philosophy to knowledge of divine things and humanitarian matters, while
Pythagoras defined it as the study of the nature of everything.
In the hands of
Socrates, philosophy was drawn into moralistic domain. Love of wisdom
identified as love of morality. Disciple of Socrates, Plato is reluctant to
restrict philosophy in ethics only. For him, philosophy also includes the study
of nature with all of its principles, and the study of the soul, knowledge and
human behavior.
Plato's pupil, Aristotle
expanded the scope of philosophy which covers whole rational knowledge. Until middle
Ages, Aristotle conception on philosophy is still valid. Almost all sciences were
derived from philosophy.
In 17th
century sciences separate from philosophy one by one. Subsequently, philosophy has
unique material object at modern era.
According to Francis
Bacon, philosophy covers three areas: metaphysics, ethics and physics. Rene
Descartes analogized philosophy with tree: its root is metaphysics, its trunk
is physics, and its branch is all science, especially medicine, mechanics and
ethics. Herbert Spencer defines philosophy as a comprehensive and integral knowledge
of universe. Antoine Augustin Cournot called philosophy as a
critical-reflective study of everything studied and discovered by science.
In contemporary times,
the definition of philosophy continues to grow. Edmund Husserl, phenomenology
philosopher, called philosophy as study of basic principles of truth comprehensively
and profoundly. To know the truth, Husserl did negative action epoche, and
positive action Zurück zu den Sachen
selbst. His epoche is to questioning anything that has not been
conclusively proven as truth. And his positive action is to know object
directly without preliminary theories and assumptions.
In philosophizing, Husserl
relies heavily on consciousness. In harmony with Husserl, Alois Riehl interprets
philosophy as the science of awareness, i.e. science which obtain all its
knowledge from data that goes into awareness.
Neo-Kantian
philosophers, such as Windelband and Heinrich Rickert, interpret philosophy as
a science that discuss the value of goodness, beauty, truth and divinity
(ethics, aesthetics, logic, and religion). Philosophy, according to them, does
not leaves science, instead use conclusions of particular sciences to get holistic
worldview.
About science and
philosophy, Bergson considers philosophy as a reflection based on the history
of human thoughts and the development of sciences. Philosophy, in other words,
is the logic of science.
Some philosophers bring
philosophy to language domain. For example Schilick, one of figures in
analytical school, relates philosophy with an explanation of the meaning. Max
Scheler saw philosophy as study of the nature of beings in detail, clearly, and
a priori. Merleau Ponty interprets philosophy as attention to the paradox.
Other philosophers tie
philosophy with the nature or the essence. Jean Piaget, for example, called
philosophy as the discussion on the essence and not the ownership of it, which
is always aware of the limitations and possibilities for development. Bertrand
Russell stated the task of philosophy is not reaching the set of nature, instead
to discuss questions which are not answered easily and directly finish.
In such discussion,
philosophy is not easily accepting a given answer. On the contrary, philosophy
as defined by Jean Lacroix is interrogative thinking. Philosophy reflects a
collection of human experience (history), and leads to the formation of things proven
rationally. But philosophy is not merely rational. According to Jean Lacroix,
philosophy is the translation of spiritual experience, either in the form of
religion, metaphysics, ethics, or aesthetics.
Aligned
with Lacroix, Karl Jasper introduces the transcendental philosophy, since
philosophy according to him is an effort to reach the highest degree of convincing
knowledge. Its object is all beings. Its method is going beyond the object. So,
philosophy is an action of free and soar soul (transcendental). Though transcendental
action, philosophy is a way to ensure human existence.
Unfortunately
transcendental philosophy brings philosophy too high. John Dewey, as pragmatist
philosopher, will to bring back philosophy to earth. His philosophy prioritizes
outcomes and consequences rather than principles. For him, philosophy should be
able to explain and present a solution to the problems or disputing thoughts.
Nowadays,
we find a specific book under the title, What is philosophy? (Qu'est-ce
Que La Philosophy? ). In that book, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattary define
philosophy as an art to form, to find and to knit concept. The concept has heterogeneous
components synthesized by a point of view or a specific foundation. The concept
is related to its external and internal components consistently. The concept is
connected with the problems, solutions, history and events. Deleuze’s and Guattary’s
definition of philosophy is very specific. They leave a wide scope of
philosophy.
In Egypt, we will find a
philosopher who returns philosophical domains. The philosopher is Abdurrahman
Badawi. He state that philosophy has six objects: value, human existence,
criticism of knowledge, the existence of an absolute, and the general
principles of science. In reviewing those objects, philosophy utilizes science’s
conclusions to form a theory and to state a truth.
There are eight
sciences which form philosophy: logics, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics,
anthropology (human philosophy), epistemology, theology, and philosophy of science
(philosophy of language, philosophy of culture, philosophy of history, natural
philosophy [physics], philosophy of Life [biology], political philosophy,
philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of religion).
The philosophical method
is deductive rational method. Its evidences are rational evidence. But
philosophy is not only theoretical, but also practical. Philosophy also
discusses something that could be known and done. Its discussion is going
beyond the appearance, very critical, and very skeptical to reach the truth.
It is some definitions of philosophy. Its
definition is very much as much as the number of philosophers. Considering the
differences of their perspective of philosophy, Kattsoff argue that it is
wasting time and not useful to resume their definitions of philosophy. The useful thing in philosophy, I think is not
to know what philosophy is, but how to philosophize. I will discuss it in other
chapter, i.e. chapter on philosophical method. (Zainul Maarif, Jakarta, March
24, 2013)
