What is philosophy? It is impossible to define it unambiguously, just because its understanding differed significantly in different historical epochs, and even in the same period in different schools and directions, points of view can be very different, including mutually exclusive. Its subject area was also understood and is still understood differently.
Philosophy in antiquity
"Love of wisdom" - this is how the word "philosophy" is translated from ancient Greek. The definition was originally based on this. It is believed that Pythagoras was the first to call himself a philosopher, and this is how he expressed his greatest humility: he believed that only the gods possess wisdom, and it is not available to mere mortals, and they can only love it, strive for it with all their might.
Ancient Greek philosophy was autonomous from mythical ideas and religious traditions, as well as from moral and political teachings. Often, it was actually a synonym for science, as it was pure knowledge, not aimed at achieving practical goals. On the other hand, philosophy was not an abstract higher knowledge, but a practice to achieve it.
Practically everything that exists was covered by philosophy. The definition of its subject, however, was not limited to the whole world. Its main branch is metaphysics. This is a study not so much of what exists as of the first and most general principles and principles of the organization of the world, consideration of it as a whole and even of what is on the other side of the world.
In Plato's texts, the word "philosophy" is found - the definition of what he and his students do.
If in ancient times it was free from religion and morality, then for a long time it "merged" with Christianity and theology. Only in modern times did philosophy in the West become a relatively separate phenomenon from religion and again began to intensively approach science.
Modern definitions of philosophy
In the modern sense, the original meaning of this word has faded into the background, that is, we are no longer talking about wisdom. Now it is often understood as a science that studies the most general fundamental characteristics of the world and man.
But is the definition correct: philosophy is a science? Some philosophers really try to get closer to science, using scientific methods of cognition, primarily logical. This point of view is called scientism.
At the same time, even the classical methods of cognition in philosophy are not so universal and are not recognized by everyone: some philosophers are critical of logic and reason. They often seek, on the contrary, to separate philosophy from science. This position is called antiscientism.
You can define philosophy through its subject, but not everything is the same heresimply. In the twentieth century, the opinion became popular that it does not have a special subject area (unlike other scientific disciplines). She has a non-special subject area - everything, the world as a whole. This, too, distinguishes philosophy from science in a significant way: its subject matter can never be specialized.
