Philosophy as a subject

Philosophy is not a "Way of Life" . Every person does not have his or her own
"Philosophy". Philosophy is not simply a theory about something. Nor is
Philosophy a belief or a wish. Philosophy is an activity: a quest after wisdom.
Philosophy is an activity of thought. Philosophy is a particular unique type of
thought or style of thinking. Philosophy is not to be confused with its product.
What a philosopher provides is a body of philosophic thought NOT a Philosophy.
A philosopher enacts a Philosophy, a quest after wisdom.

A worldview is a theory of the world, used for living in the world. A world view is
a mental model of reality — a framework of ideas and attitudes about the world,
us, and life, a comprehensive system of beliefs with answers for a wide range of
questions. What are humans, why we are here, and what is our purpose in life?
What are your goals for life? When you make decisions about using time — it's
the stuff life is made of — what are your values and priorities?

In one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture,

and a search for knowledge. In this sense, all cultures and literate societies ask
philosophical questions, such as "how are we to live" and "what is the nature of
reality." A broad and impartial conception of philosophy, then, finds a reasoned
inquiry into such matters as reality, morality, and life in all world civilizations.

Many branches of philosophy have grown from the traditional core areas :
Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Subfields of
Ethics, Philosophy of Art (Aesthetics), Philosophy of Language, Other Subfields.

Philosophy investigates and studies the underpinnings of science, art, and

theology. Philosophy attempts to develop a comprehensive conception or
apprehension of the world. Philosophy seeks to integrate the knowledge of the
sciences with that of other fields of study to achieve some kind of consistent and
coherent world view. Philosophy studies and critically evaluates our most deeply
held beliefs and attitudes; in particular, those which are often held uncritically.
Philosophers have an attitude of critical and logical thoughtfulness. They force us
to see the significance and consequences of our beliefs, and sometimes their
inconsistencies. Philosophy investigates the principles and rules of language, and
attempts to clarify the meaning of vague words and concepts.

Philosophy examines the role of language in communication and thought, and the
problem of how to identify or ensure the presence of meaning in our use of
language. It is a method--a practice which seeks to expose the problems and
confusions which have results from the misuse of language, and to clarify the
meaning and use of vague terms in scientific and/or everyday discourse.

Indian philosophy, the systems of thought and reflection that were developed by
the civilizations of the Indian subcontinent. The various Indian philosophies
contain such a diversity of views, theories, and systems that it is almost impossible
to single out characteristics that are common to all of them. Acceptance of the
authority of the Vedas characterizes all the orthodox (astika) systems—but not the
unorthodox (nastika) systems, such as Charvaka (radical materialism), Buddhism,
and Jainism. Three basic concepts form the cornerstone of Indian philosophical
thought: the self or soul (atman), works (karma), and liberation (moksha).

Chinese philosophy, the thought of Chinese culture, from earliest times to the
present. The keynote in Chinese philosophy is humanism: man and his society
have occupied, if not monopolized, the attention of Chinese philosophers
throughout the ages. The general conclusion represented in Chinese philosophy is
that of the unity of man and heaven. This spirit of synthesis has characterized the
entire history of Chinese philosophy. Historically, Chinese philosophy has gone
through four periods: the classical, the neo-Daoist and Buddhist, the neo-
Confucian, and the modern. In the classical period (6th–3rd century BCE), the
chief concepts were Dao (“the Way”), de (“virtue”), ren (“humanity,” “love”), yi
(“righteousness”), tian (“heaven”), and yinyang (cosmic elements of tranquility
and activity, or weakness and strength, respectively).
Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC and continued throughout
the Hellenistic period and the period in which Ancient Greece was part of the
Roman Empire. Phylosophy was use to make a sense out of the world in a non-
religious way. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including political
philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric, and aesthetics.
The Pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations for
the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations. They
started to ask questions like where did everything come from, and why is there
such variety, and how can nature be described mathematically? They tended to
look for universal principles to explain the whole of Nature.

Although they are arguably more important for the questions they asked than the
answers they arrived at, the problems and paradoxes they identified became the
basis for later mathematical, scientific and philosophic study.

The Socratic or Classical period of the Ancient era of philosophy denotes the
Greek contemporaries and near contemporaries of the influential philosopher
Socrates. Socrates developed a system of critical reasoning in order to work out
how to live properly and to tell the difference between right and wrong. He and his
followers, Plato and Aristotle maintained an unwavering commitment to the truth,
and between them they organized and systematized most of the problems of
philosophy.

Important philosophical movements of the period include Cynicism, Hedonism,

Platonism and Aristotelianism.

Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy and Ancient Greek

philosophy in the Hellenistic period and ending with the beginning of the Imperial
period and the rise of Ancient Roman philosophy. It refers specifically to the
uniquely Greek culture that spread around the ancient world with the military
campaigns of Alexander the Great, including Greek language, art, religion, and
philosophy. After Alexander's death, his empire was divided among his generals
into dynasties, which perpetuated his policy of Hellenization. All the while, Athens
continued to dominate as a philosophical learning center, with Plato’s Academy,
Aristotle’s Lyceum, and four new Hellenistic schools: Cynicism, Epicureanism,
Stoicism, and Skepticism.

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy in the era now known as medieval or the
Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman
Empire in the 5th century C.E. to the Renaissance in the 16th century. Medieval
philosophy, understood as a project of independent philosophical inquiry, began in
Baghdad, in the middle of the 8th century, and in France, in the itinerant court of
Charlemagne, in the last quarter of the 8th century. It is defined partly by the
process of rediscovering the ancient culture developed in Greece and Rome in the
classical period, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to
integrate sacred doctrine with secular learning.

The history of medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two main periods:
the period in the Latin West following the Early Middle Ages until the 12th
century, when the works of Aristotle and Plato were preserved and cultivated and
the 'golden age' of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in the Latin West.The
medieval era was disparagingly treated by the Renaissance humanists, who saw it
as a barbaric 'middle' period between the classical age of Greek and Roman
culture, and the 'rebirth' or renaissance of classical culture. Modern historians
consider the medieval era to be one of philosophical development, heavily
influenced by Christian theology. One of the most notable thinkers of the era,
Thomas Aquinas, never considered himself a philosopher, and criticized
philosophers for always "falling short of the true and proper wisdom to be found in
Christian revelation".

Patristic philosophy can be considered from the point of view of the history of
Christianity—and it is then part of the science of patristic studies—or from the
point of view of the history of philosophy that began outside, and before, the
Christian community. The point of view of this article is the history of philosophy.
When patristic philosophy is seen from the viewpoint of the history of philosophy,
it is generally considered as a correction and development of Greek philosophy.
Though there are merits in this procedure, it gives a false perspective. Patristic
philosophy began with the Hebrew tradition and the Bible. Greek philosophy
entered this tradition and taught the patristic philosophers how to develop the
philosophical elements in revelation rationally (cf. C. Tresmontant). But the
patristic philosophers also saw themselves as different from the Jews, who held
strictly to the Old Testament. The difference, of course, was Christ, and though the
mystery of Christ took them beyond the realm of rational understanding,
nevertheless the theology of Christ forced a reconstruction of philosophy that can
be called specifically Christian, at least in the historical sense.

Scholasticism is a Medieval school of philosophy (or, perhaps more accurately, a

method of learning) taught by the academics of medieval universities and
cathedrals in the period from the 12th to 16th Century. It combined Logic,
Metaphysics and semantics into one discipline, and is generally recognized to have
developed our understanding of Logic significantly.

The term "scholastic" is derived from the Latin word "scholasticus" and the Greek
"scholastikos" (meaning literally "devoting one's leisure to learning" or "scholar")
and the Greek "scholeion" (meaning "school"). The term "schoolmen" is also
commonly used to describe scholastics.

Scholasticism is best known for its application in medieval Christian theology,

especially in attempts to reconcile the philosophy of the ancient classical
philosophers (particularly Aristotle) with Christian theology. However, in the High
Scholastic period of the 14th Century, it moved beyond theology, and had
applications in many other fields of study including Epistemology, Philosophy of
Science, philosophy of nature, psychology and even economic theory.

Essentially, Scholasticism is a tool and method for learning which places emphasis
on dialectical reasoning (the exchange of argument, or thesis, and counter
argument, or antithesis, in pursuit of a conclusion, or synthesis), directed at
answering questions or resolving contradictions. In medieval Europe, dialectics (or
logic) was one of the three original liberal arts (the "trivium"), in addition to
rhetoric and grammar.

Modern philosophy refers to the philosophy that originated in Western Europe in

the 17th century and later spread to other parts of the world. Modern philosophy
began in the 17th century and ended in the 20th century. This period was marked
with a lot of philosophical writings and works from some of the greatest men of
that era. The main players in modern philosophy during its earlier years can be
grouped in to two namely the rationalists and the empiricists.

Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which opposes other theories of knowledge,

such as rationalism, idealism and historicism. Empiricism asserts that knowledge
comes (only or primarily) via sensory experience as opposed to rationalism, which
asserts that knowledge comes (also) from pure thinking.

Rationalism, in Western philosophy, the view that regards reason as the chief
source and test of knowledge. Holding that reality itself has an inherently logical
structure, the rationalist asserts that a class of truths exists that the intellect can
grasp directly. There are, according to the rationalists, certain rational principles—
especially in logic and mathematics, and even in ethics and metaphysics—that are
so fundamental that to deny them is to fall into contradiction. The rationalists’
confidence in reason and proof tends, therefore, to detract from their respect for
other ways of knowing.

The critical philosophy movement, attributed to Immanuel Kant (1724–1802), sees

the primary task of philosophy as criticism rather than justification of knowledge.
Criticism, for Kant, meant judging as to the possibilities of knowledge before
advancing to knowledge itself (from the Greek kritike (techne), or "art of
judgment"). The basic task of philosophers, according to this view, is not to
establish and demonstrate theories about reality, but rather to subject all theories—
including those about philosophy itself—to critical review, and measure their
validity by how well they withstand criticism.

"Critical philosophy" is also used as another name for Kant's philosophy itself.
Kant said that philosophy's proper inquiry is not about what is out there in reality,
but rather about the character and foundations of experience itself. We must first
judge how human reason works, and within what limits, so that we can afterwards
correctly apply it to sense experience and determine whether it can be applied at all
to metaphysical objects.

The principal three sources on which the critical philosophy is based are the three
critiques, namely Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and
Critique of Judgement, published between 1781 and 1790 and mostly concerned,
respectively, with metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics.

Hegel's principal achievement was his development of a distinctive articulation of

idealism, sometimes termed absolute idealism, in which the dualisms of, for
instance, mind and nature and subject and object are overcome. His philosophy of
spirit conceptually integrates psychology, the state, history, art, religion and
philosophy. Hegel has influenced many thinkers and writers whose own positions
vary widely. For example, "the roots of post-structuralism and its unifying basis
lies, in large part, in a general opposition not to the philosophical tradition tout
court but specifically to the Hegelian tradition" dominating philosophy in the
twentieth century prior to post-structuralism. Paul Tillich wrote that the historical
dialectical thought of Hegel "has influenced world history more profoundly than
any other structural analysis.

Ludwig Feuerbach, in full Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, German philosopher and

moralist remembered for his influence on Karl Marx and for his humanistic
theologizing. In this work Feuerbach attacked the concept of personal immortality
and proposed a type of immortality by which human qualities are reabsorbed into
nature. Continuing this view in his most important work, Das Wesen des
Christentums , Feuerbach posited the notion that man is to himself his own object
of thought and that religion is nothing more than a consciousness of the infinite.
The result of this view is the notion that God is merely the outward projection of
man’s inward nature. In the first part of his book, which strongly influenced Marx,
Feuerbach analyzed the “true or anthropological essence of religion.” Discussing
God’s aspects “as a being of the understanding,” “as a moral being or law,” “as
love,” and others, he argued that they correspond to different needs in human
nature. In the second section he analyzed the “false or theological essence of
religion,” contending that the view that God has an existence independent of
human existence leads to a belief in revelation and sacraments, which are items of
an undesirable religious materialism.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic
and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist
philosopher. His main works are: Either/Or, Fear and Tremblingand, Stages on
Life's Way. Kierkegaard's theological work focuses on Christian ethics, the
institution of the Church, the differences between purely objective proofs of
Christianity, the infinite qualitative distinction between man and God, and the
individual's subjective relationship to the God-Man Jesus the Christ, which came
through faith. Much of his work deals with Christian love. He was extremely
critical of the practice of Christianity as a state religion, primarily that of the
Church of Denmark. His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of
individuals when faced with life choices.

Nietzsche was a German philosopher, essayist, and cultural critic. His writings on
truth, morality, language, aesthetics, cultural theory, history, nihilism, power,
consciousness, and the meaning of existence have exerted an enormous influence
on Western philosophy and intellectual history. His main works: "The Birth of
Tragedy", "Ecce Homo", "Twilight of the Idols", "The Antichrist", "The Will To
Power", " Thus Spoke Zarathustra," "Beyond Good and Evil". The famous
statement "God is dead" occurs in several of Nietzsche's works (notably in "The
Gay Science" of 1882. He argued that modern science and the increasing
secularization of European society had effectively "killed" the Christian God, who
had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than thousand
years. An important element of Nietzsche's philosophical outlook is the concept of
the "will to power", which provides a basis for understanding motivation in human
behaviour. His notion of the will to power can be viewed as a direct response and
challenge to Schopenhauer's "will to live".

Nietzsche spoke of "the death of God," and foresaw the dissolution of traditional
religion and metaphysics. Some interpreters of Nietzsche believe he embraced
nihilism, rejected philosophical reasoning, and promoted a literary exploration of
the human condition, while not being concerned with gaining truth and knowledge
in the traditional sense of those terms.

Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late-19th- and 20th-century

European philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the
belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the
thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. While the
predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be
freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. In the view of the existentialist, the
individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential
attitude", or a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an
apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also regarded
traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too
abstract and remote from concrete human experience.

Ukrainian mentality was formed influenced by many factors: geographical location

at the cross-roads of the West and East, specific climate conditions and complex, at
times tragic historical destiny. Since time immemorial Ukrainians have been
known as hardworking, thrifty, skilled farmers, emotionally strongly. They are
typically kind-hearted, friendly, hospitable and well wishing to both fellow
countrymen and foreigners; they are cautious yet inclined to romanticism and
sentimentality. But come the time of ordeal and they are determined, resourceful,
brave, ready for self-sacrifice. Among themselves, despite their interest
emotionalism, Ukrainians have always valued restraint, consideration and a
realistic view of life. Theirs is a very rich imagination reflection the surround
realities in a colourful at times paradoxical way.

Because it was adopted from other cultures to address certain pressing political or
religious needs, philosophy in Ukraine has been preoccupied with practical rather
than theoretical problems.

The original Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, founded by the Metropolitan of Kyiv Petro

Mohyla in 1615, was one of the most distinguished and earliest among higher
educational institutions in Eastern Europe. Its aim was to master the intellectual
skills and learning of contemporary Europe and to apply them to the improvement
of education in Ukraine. The undergraduate programme was based on the liberal
arts and designed to develop oratorical skills as much as the acquisition of a body
of knowledge. It was organized into five grades. The three lower grades were
essentially grammarian. The intermediate level consisted of two grades, in which
students began to compose Latin prose and verse. Beyond the five grades, higher
education consisted of three-years philosophy programme that paved the way to
four years of theology.

Hryhorii Savych Skovoroda was a Ukrainian philosopher, poet, teacher and

composer who lived in the Russian Empire and who made important contributions
to Russian philosophy and culture. He lived and worked in Ukraine and
passionately and consciously identified with its people, differentiating them from
those of Russia and condemning Russia's interference in his homeland. Skovoroda
received his education at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy in Kiev. Haunted by worldly
and spiritual powers, the philosopher led a life of an itinerant thinker-beggar. In his
tracts and dialogs, biblical problems overlap with those examined earlier by Plato
and the Stoics. Skovoroda's first book was issued after his death in 1798 inSaint
Petersburg. Skovoroda's complete works were published for the first time in Saint
Petersburg in 1861. Before this edition many of his works existed only in
manuscript form.

Skovoroda's works during his life were not printed, because the then censor found
that his sacred writings were offensive to Monasticism. Brought up in a spirit of
philosophical and religious studies, he became an opponent of dead church
scholasticism and spiritual oppression of the Moscow centred Orthodox Church,
based in its philosophy to the Bible. "Our kingdom is within us" he wrote "and to
know God, you must know yourself..People should know God, like themselves,
enough to see him in the world.Belief in God does not mean belief in his existence
and therefore to give in to him and live according to His law...Sanctity of life lies
in doing good to people."

Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood . Secret society established in December 1845–

January 1846 in Kyiv at the initiative of Mykola Kostomarov. The aim of the
society was to transform the social order according to the Christian principles of
justice, freedom, equality, and brotherhood. It proposed a series of reforms:
abolition of serfdom and equality of rights for all estates, equal opportunity for all
Slavic nations to develop their national language and culture, education for the
broad masses of the people, and unification of all Slavs in the spirit of the
Slavophilism of the time in a federated state in which Ukraine would play a
leading role.