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What Is Philosophy?

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To some, philosophy may seem like an ambiguous course with no real focus, and can be hard to differentiate from other studies and fields, sciences and religion in particular. However, philosophy is the study of human intellect and reasoning, or in other words, thinking about thinking. The word philosophy derives from the Greek words “philo” (meaning “love of”) and “Sophia” (meaning “wisdom”), so together it literally means “the love of wisdom.” Those who use philosophy seek total knowledge, meaning understanding and knowing everything. In order to obtain total knowledge, new knowledge must be created, which is what philosophy allows philosophers to do. The creation of new knowledge yields power, power yields freedom, and freedom yields survival. So, in a sense, the key to our survival is to use philosophy. Philosophy is used in every field of study and all aspects of life, separating it from other disciplines and faiths that it is so often confused with. There are distinct attributes about philosophy that allows it to stand on its own. Religion and philosophy are different entities, however, philosophy does impact religion. Religion can be defined as the rules for the direction of life under conditions of maximum certainty. For comparison, philosophy can be defined as the rules for the direction of maximum uncertainty. In simpler terms, philosophy is use to provide answers that we don’t know (i.e. what happens when we die). Religion, on the other hand provides those answers, so we don’t need to question them because they are provided to use through religious text and experience, and from God (or gods). Since the guidelines have already been created, there is no flexibility to include new rules, and no mention on how one should live their life in the modern era. For example, the Bible tells Christians to show compassion and other rules on how to treat others, but

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