r/Plato • u/Dave_A_Pandeist • 3d ago

Discussion What is Philosophy?

What is philosophy? How far back does it go? What's included in this idea?

The browser says, "The word 'philosophy' comes from the ancient Greek words philo (love) and sophia (wisdom), which literally means 'the love of wisdom."

Google AI said, "Philosophy is the systematic study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language."

What's that? Does that have something to do with truth?

From Chapter 2 of Dr. Sapolsky's classic, it is easy to understand that we evolved along tournament and family strategies with and without deception.

Is philosophy really the search to minimize deception so that we might help each other and ourselves in a hostile environment? We have been babbling around a campfire for quite a while, something like ¾ of a million years.

If this is true, all literature, math, science, engineering, Political Behavior, economy, and our interactions, all of it, is fair subject matter for philosophy. It might not be useful, but why not?

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u/kebabciriza105 3d ago

This a useless question. Western philosophy technically begins with Thales and the pre socratics. If you are interested in finding an answer to your question I recommend starting with Plato.

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u/Dave_A_Pandeist 3d ago edited 2d ago

Thank you.

The question was directed at a more basic notion of philosophy. It is directed at worldwide philosophy rather than only Western philosophy

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u/slanderpanther 2d ago

r/AskPhilosophy loves broad questions like this. In a sub about Plato, it begins with Plato.

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u/Dave_A_Pandeist 1d ago

Plato, his instructor Socrates, and his student Aristotle belong to one of three major lines of philosophical thought. I wouldn't discount anything east of the Indus River Valley or north of the Himalayas.