PHILOSOPHY

ASSIGNMENT # 1
DATED:10/10/2010
MARKS 20
SUBMITTED BY FATIMA ZUBAIR BUTT
BSC I.R, SEMESTER 1

Q) What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is primarily the pursuit of wisdom; An academic discipline that seeks

truth through reasoning rather than empiricism; A comprehensive system of belief;
A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain. Thus
philosophy is an amalgamate of two Greek words; “philier” meaning, the one who
desires, and “sophia”, meaning, wisdom. Thus philosophy means the one who
desires wisdom. It is a means of gaining wisdom through an intellectual method
that includes observation, questioning, research, argumentation and final
conclusion. Although philosophy does not have any definite answers to questions,
and answers keep changing with more research and scrutiny into the matter. Thus
philosophy is the investigation of nature, the cause and effect relationship and the
working of nature.
Philosophy aims to identify the causes and principles of Reality. It draws a line
between appearance and reality and weighs the value of things with reference to
these two principles. Philosophy, as considered by many people, is not a rambling of
the ,ind or a hypothetical kind of a subject. It based on thorough intellectual
investigation and conclusions drawn with effection argumentation. It not only
focuses on events, but critical study of fundamental assumptions. Thus it is
grounded in logical thinking, facts and reasoning.

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? Is a broad based question. We can understand it better

if we analyse the different stages through which it has had to pass. The ancient,
medieval, renaissance, early modern and late modern and the contemprary
philosophy have existed through ages. Because in all ages people were curious about
their beginning and end. The subjects under scrutiny have been rationalism,
existentialism,( later followed by literary writers such as Tom Stoppard and Eugene
Ionesco in 1950’s) skepticism, idealism, pragmatism etc. human nature and politics
as well as morality have long remained the subjects of discussion. Thus,
metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of language, religion and mind as well as
epistemology are all parts of it. These questions are indispensable to being alive.

Socrates is quoted to have said that,

“A life without the critical examination of the “self” is not worth living”

Philosophy through its fundamental methods of intellectual investigation forms a

better understanding of the world around us. That comprises culture, politics,
attitudes and ideas around us. Although philosophy is independent of religion and
deems it out of its realm, but in many of its applications to the worldly life, religion
comes into play and certain linkages can be formed between the two. Yet,
philosophy operates at an individual level, thus it is not limited by religious dogma
or certain belief system.

In philosophy we talk about metaphysical matters that cannot be handled by

physical and natural sciences alone. Therefore we have subjects like social sciences
and humanities that tackle existentialist issues. Philosophy too unearths matters of
greater consequence to human life and existence in this world and the eventual end
of human beings. Thus we identify the truth and Reality behind the created world.

Philosophers have had different ideas about everything. The more we read their
philosophies, the more we know about our ignorance. The way Socrates said that
the more I discover, the lesser I know. Some said that the world was made on water
and keeps changing form. While others exemplifies and simply elaborated this.

Comprised of six basic pillars, philosophy deals with knowledge, Reality, truth,
science, sense of good and bad as well as religion. All these ideas merge and
converge at one single point known as the methodology. Thus these all help us
explore the multifaceted realm of philosophical thought.

Talking about religion and philosophy, the work of Allama Muhammad Iqbal
known as “Reconstruction Of Religious Thought In Islam” has left a mark on the
philosophers and historians alike, in discovering the inextricable connection
between religious thought and its manifestation in philosophy and vice versa.
Following is an extract that gives a clearer meaning to this interconnection.

Broadly speaking religious life may be divided into three periods. These may be
described as the periods of ‘Faith’, ‘Thought’, and ‘Discovery.’ In the first period
religious life appears as a form of discipline which the individual or a whole people
must accept as an unconditional command without any rational understanding of the
ultimate meaning and purpose of that command. This attitude may be of great
consequence in the social and political history of a people, but is not of much
consequence in so far as the individual’s inner growth and expansion are concerned.
Perfect submission to discipline is followed by a rational understanding of the
discipline and the ultimate source of its authority. In this period religious life seeks its
foundation in a kind of metaphysics - a logically consistent view of the world with God
as a part of that view. In the third period metaphysics is displaced by psychology, and
religious life develops the ambition to come into direct contact with the Ultimate
Reality. It is here that religion becomes a matter of personal assimilation of life and
power; and the individual achieves a free personality, not by releasing himself from the
fetters of the law, but by discovering the ultimate source of the law within the depths of
his own consciousness. As in the words of a Muslim Sufi - ‘no understanding of the
Holy Book is possible until it is actually revealed to the believer just as it was revealed
to the Prophet.’1 It is, then, in the sense of this last phase in the development of
religious life that I use the word religion in the question that I now propose to raise.
Religion in this sense is known by the unfortunate name of Mysticism, which is
supposed to be a life-denying, fact-avoiding attitude of mind directly opposed to the
radically empirical outlook of our times. Yet higher religion, which is only a search for
a larger life, is essentially experience and recognized the necessity of experience as its
foundation long before science learnt to do so. It is a genuine effort to clarify human
consciousness, and is, as such, as critical of its level of experience as Naturalism that
is of its own level.

The aspect of knowledge refers to that of God, people, issues and the Universal
implications of human actions. Reality is the key factor that distinguishes the
material world from the real world. Thus we see a gaping difference between
realism, idealism and materialism in today’s age. These ideas have transformed and
manifested themselves in several different panoramas, and demand equally
different approach on an individual level. Each individual thinker and philosopher
has to discover these phenomena and come up an argument of personal
development. Because what might be modernity for one will not hold the same
meaning for the other.

Some people believe in scientific investigation to chart a belief system for themselves
while other go by religious dogma. While philosophy in Russell’s work is

“A no man’s land between religion and science.”

Thus none of the two can command definite control over philosophical thought. The
truth is that the knowledge of all is within us, it only needs to be identified,
rehearsed through observation and investigation.