Philosophy is a rather obscure and fascinating subject. It conjures images of old bearded men, toiling away over books in the candlelight, or scribbling away on parchment. It leads one to imagine robed figures standing in the middle of an ancient Greek plaza, enthusiastically debating with each other. Indeed these images all offer clues to the facets of philosophy, from classical philosophers to medieval scholars, such images encompass a large section of philosophical history.

The word philosophy is taken from the Greek philos = love and sophie = wisdom (from the goddess of wisdom), and quite literally means lover of wisdom. This however is where the definition breaks down. None of the philosophers throughout history have ever been able to agree on what philosophy is; and therefore a lowly scholar such as myself must declare intellectual bankruptcy right here and now before I am swept away by an attempt to do so.

Philosophy is many things to many people. Some believe it to be a system of beliefs, some see it as pointless, some see it as an essential tool to sharpen the mind, while others see it as a time-wasting exercise.

In philosophy, questions are often answered by more questions, while the nature of our knowledge is even debated. How do we know that you have a cat? Perhaps we saw the cat earlier and inferred that it was your cat from its food bowl and other such accouterments. Now we’re on the subject, how do we know that the cat even exists? It might be an elaborate illusion. Do you think this is text you’re reading now?

Thus it is the nature of Philosophy to be full of questions, and it is the nature of philosophers to make us doubt. Nothing can be assumed, and everything is to be updated as new information comes to light.

It was an underlying belief among philosophers that they could infer meaning and order in the universe using only logic, thinking, questioning, and debating. Philosophers sought to answer the big questions such as “is there a god?”, “what is the meaning of life?”, “what is the ideal society?” and many more. In a sense they were right, philosophy does help answer these questions, but not in itself. Instead philosophy gave birth to new disciplines which could take on such questions.

Modern Science, Ethics, Linguistics, Political Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology, are among the discipline that were born of the philosophy, and understanding the limitations of philosophy, moved on – each becoming incredibly successful in its area of specialization.

There is still a place for philosophy, for sharpening our minds and uncovering the nature of our belief, so long as we know when to stop philosophizing and utilize a more appropriate discipline.

Atomists, for example, came up with the idea that the world was composed of minuscule units called atoms which could not be subdivided or cut, and that these atoms made up all the matter in the universe. They came up with this idea through philosophical reasoning some five centuries before the birth of Christ. We now know they were remarkably close to the truth. But amazingly Aristotle rejected the ideas of the atomists, and returned to the old ideas of earth, air, water, and fire being the elements that composed everything. Since Aristotle was one of the most influential thinkers of his day, the idea of Atoms disappeared for almost two thousand years. Nothing more aptly illustrate the limitations of philosophy. An idea that is correct can so easily be dismissed, if the counterargument is put forward with more eloquence.

Still philosophy has much to offer us, it opens up our minds to new ideas and new ways of thinking, and leads us to question how we know what we know; to think about thinking; to reject our assumptions.

This article does not attempt to describe or encapsulate the subject, but highlight themes that run through it, to understand philosophy all the reader can do is study the subject themselves and make up their own minds. Philosophy is something different for each individual.