What is Philosophy?

[Paul Hubbard <curley_boy_99@yahoo.co.uk>]

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Greetings to all of you.  My name is Paul Hubbard, and
I am a 3rd year undergraduate philosophy student at
the University of Bolton.  My first post to this list
was going to be an examination of Martin Heidegger's
concept of 'Being'.  However, seeing as that
particular philosopher is generally about as welcome
as a fart in an lift ? for numerous reasons ? I
thought I'd try to cover slightly safer ground in my
introduction.  Therefore, my first post to this group
will be an attempt to uncover a suitable definition of
philosophy.

Now the question, ?What is philosophy? is hardly new. 
I suspect that many of you have been asked this
question many times over by friends and family, when
you have confided in them that you have chosen to
study such an 'obscure' subject.  When my grandmother
asks me (and she does this every time I see her ? she
has a poor memory, bless her!) I am always left
floundering for a comprehensible, and yet meaningful,
response.  What is it that I actually DO as a
philosopher, what is my subject area?  A series of
endless and arbitrary possibilities face us when we
consider this question.  Admittedly, faced with such a
multitude bewildering choices, and the clock ticking
for my response, I invariably mumble something about
?the meaning of life? or ?the possible existence of
God? etc.  But such answers are not really answers at
all, they are merely what I say to bluff my way out of
a difficult question ? to disguise the awful truth:
that I do not know what my subject is about nor, by
implication, what I am actually doing when I study
philosophy.

Then, one day, an answer came to me (in the bath, as
all good answers do):  ?What philosophers are
interested in,? I thought, ?are all those questions
which are left-over from other subjects ? the ones
that nobody else thinks to ask.?  Was my bath time
revelation correct?  Is philosophy merely scraps and
left-overs from other disciplines, or those questions
that are considered 'too trivial' ('irrelevant') to
everyday folk?  I asked my father what he thought
about my definition (although he is not a philosopher,
he is an accountant, and should therefore be trusted
in all things).  He said that such a definition would
be an insult to philosophy and philosophers
everywhere.  If it were true, my definition would mean
that philosophy was a subject of no great importance
or significance; and, furthermore, could not be
considered an autonomous discipline ? as it would be
constantly leeching off others for its very existence
and survival.

However, I am going to ignore my father, just this
once, and claim that philosophy is indeed involved
with 'trivial' questions that, nevertheless, do not
degrade it as a subject: rather, it is enhanced by
such concerns.  Consider the following questions:

?What's that?? (pointing to a book on the table).
?What is it that makes all books 'book-like'??

?What do you think about...?? (asking for an opinion).
?What is the nature of 'thinking'??

?Was that a good thing to do?? (was that particular
act morally approved of?).
?What is the nature of 'the good'??

These question pairs illustrate (hopefully!) that the
distinction between a standard question and a
'philosophical' one lies at the level at which each is
asked.  The first question in each pair skims over the
surface of all sorts of interesting problems (probably
without even seeing them).  However, the second
question in each example goes one step further and
inquires at the foundations of the first.  Philosophy
is like no other discipline, because no other
discipline would think to ask a question like ?do
numbers exist??, rather than simply making use of them
like mathematicians do.  Philosophy is a subject that
defies the traditional kind of definition because one
cannot 'fit' it into one particular mould.  It
examines those areas that other subjects have claimed
for themselves, but then discarded or overlooked as
'trivial' or 'unimportant'.  To my knowledge,
philosophy is the only subject (in academia or
elsewhere) that offers up itself as a subject for its
own critical investigations.  To ask the question,
?What is philosophy?? one must actually think about
the question, and treat it as such (ie as a question,
not as an opportunity to trot out a textbook
definition).  In seeking to answer the question one
must actually engage in and DO some philosophy.

In conclusion, 'philosophy' today might be seen by
those on the outside as clinging onto its reputation
(and funding), as a 'serious' discipline, by the skin
of its teeth.  But, by picking up where others have
left off, and daring to go further ? deeper - we
ensure that the original goal of learning and inquiry
is continued: to find fulfilment in the asking of a
question, and then not being satisfied until we
receive a genuine answer (even if, in the end, that
answer turns out to be the 'wrong' one)!


		
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