What is the literal meaning of philosophy?

Answer 1

"Philosophy" is a word invented by the Greeks and means "love of wisdom". In ancient Greece, philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle spent a lot of time thinking about everything in the world around them, and trying to get at the fundamental principles on which they are based. Some of the things they thought about became the foundations of science. Others have continued as benchmarks for thought about ethics, aesthetics, theology and psychology.

Over the centuries a great many people have continued asking questions of this type, formulating possible answers, and disputing those raised by others. Philosophy continues to be a discipline where people try to get at the fundamental principles of things using thought as their method.

However, that is not what people are generally talking about when they use the phrase "philosophy of life", "philosophy in life" or other similar phrases. At their most profound, they can be talking about questions which impact directly on how they live their lives: Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? On what basis should I make choices in my life? Do those choices have cosmic consequences? When I die, what happens? Religions try to answer a lot of these questions, and for many people, blindly accepting the teachings of a religion is the most comfortable way of dealing with them. Others will want to probe deeper, either within the context of religious teaching or outside of it.

In this context a "philosophy of life" is a person's attitude toward the experience of living one's life, what they hold to be the meaning of life and what they believe should be achieved by a person in order to achieve the most fulfilling life possible. An example of such a philosophy is clearly exhibited in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: there Levin, often considered Tolstoy's portrait, concludes eventually that life has no objective meaning, that the meaning of life is life itself, or the search for that meaning, and the greatest wisdom in life is to assume one's place within it and fulfil that place to the best of one's ability. Through comparison of Anna's tempestuous, passionate life, which ended in suicide, with Levin's soul-searching solace that eventually led him to fulfilment and understanding, Tolstoy also implicitly rejects a passionate, frivolous lifestyle as the way one should truly live. According to many philosophers one's life philosophy, no matter how simple, must be among the most important conclusions one cherishes within life. For the importance of living, says Dostoevsky, resides not in merely doing so but in what one lives for. Without meaning in life, many philosophers and especially existentialists hold (vide The Myth of Sisyphys by Albert Camus, La Nausee by Jean-Paul Sartre) , that man will cease to be human and commit suicide.

For others, the question of "philosophy of life" is an opportunity to trot out trite, superficial and overgeneralized statements, often of a sentimental nature. Appeal to such proverbs, so well adapted to fortune-cookie use, is as far from real philosophy as is the mindless repitition of religious slogans. Examples of such a proverb include "Chance favors the prepared mind", or "Lead, follow, or get out of the way".

Answer 2

Inquiring the nature of knowledge is philosophy

Answer 3

In the Greek word philosophia, philo means love and Sophia means wisdom. So philosophy literaly means love of wisdom

Answer 4

The original meaning was "love of wisdom". The real meaning is the study of the fundamental principles of things.

Answer 5

love of wisdom

Answer 6

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