What is Philosphy??
Philosophy is the activity of seeking a reflective understanding of ourselves and of the natural and social worlds we inhabit. Philosophers seek to obtain this understanding by reflecting critically on the conclusions reached by natural and social scientists, writers, historians and thinkers of all kinds. At an early stage of reflection, they may simply seek to integrate the limited points of views of these different perspectives into a more all-encompassing understanding. But the interesting, and more difficult, part of philosophical inquiry arises when it is found that this integration cannot be carried out completely. Here is one example: our unreflective beliefs about the nature of space and time, especially our thoughts about 'the passage of time' and our experience of the ways in which things 'appear in space', are not compatible with an advanced scientific understanding of space and time.

STUDYING PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is not a distinct body of facts or theories; rather, as we have seen, philosophy is the activity of constructing arguments concerning fundamental questions. Because this is a difficult and challenging intellectual activity, the study of philosophy requires, and develops, skills in reasoning, analysis, imagination and writing. Studying philosophy should enable you to become both more rigorous and more tolerant in relation to the ideas of others; you should learn how to assess constructively beliefs very different from your own, and be able to learn yourself from being criticised by others.

Doing philosophy often involves a study of its history. This is partly because past philosophers have influenced our ordinary current thought and language, so that as we begin to get a critical perspective on the assumptions of our current beliefs we find ourselves drawn into the past philosophy it incorporates. But there also remains much to be learnt from the responses of the really great philosophers of the past to their intellectual predicaments, even though our situation can never just repeat theirs.

Thus, at its best, the study of philosophy is a dialogue with the past, in which reflection on the tensions symptomatic of our current systems of belief and practice leads one back to the study of the great philosophers of the past, and then forward to the articulation of new arguments that yield a route beyond current debates.

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