DEFINITION OF PHILOSOPHY AND THE NATURE OF INQUIRY

DEFINITION OF PHILOSOPHY AND NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL ENQUIRY. The term philosophy is Greek word from two words. These are: philos which means love or desire and Sophia which means wisdom (Pojman and Vaughn). So a philosopher is the one who searches for knowledge by asking questions. This paper aims at the definition of philosophy and nature of philosophical enquiry. Any given field of inquiry has philosophical roots and extensions.

In general, philosophy is both an activity involving thinking about these kinds of ultimate questions and an activity involving the construction of sound reasons or insights into our most basic assumptions about the universe and our lives. Quite often, simply asking a series of ‘Why’ and ‘How’ questions can reveal these basic presuppositions. Children often ask such questions, sometimes to the annoyance of their parents, in order to get a feel for the way the world works. For example, a child asking his father as to why he is reading this philosophy book: Child: Why are you reading ‘Reading for philosophical Inquiry?’’ Father: ‘It’s an assigned book in philosophy, one of my college courses.’ Child: ‘Why do you take philosophy?’