FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION ::MEANING, NATURE AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY.

MEANING

The word Philosophy is made up of two Greek words- “Phileo” and “Sophia”. “Phileo” means love and “Sophia” means wisdom. The term Philosophy means “Love of wisdom”. Philosophy does not answer the question; it questions the answer. Philosophy is also the practice of making and assessing arguments.

There are many intellectuals who has defined the Philosophy in many different ways. All these intellectuals have helped us to understand the true meaning of Philosophy such as;

• Levison: Philosophy is mental activity.
• Socrates: Philosophy is a daily activity.
• Henderson: Philosophy gives a synoptic view of Universe.
• Radha Krishnana.S: Philosophy is a view of life. It gives a direction to life, offers a design for living.

In precise Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as Mysticism or Mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned arguments.

NATURE

From the following we can understand the nature of Philosophy:

• Philosophy is also known for the cultivation of excellent thinking.
• Philosophy helps us to recognize the ethical problems and possibilities to think carefully and make sound ethical judgement and to take appropriate action.
• Philosophy is an activity.
• Philosophy as speculation.
• Philosophy can be conceived as an activity of criticism, clarification and interpretation of life.
• Philosophy is a comprehensive picture of the universe.
• It is a search for knowledge and wisdom.
• It is a way of life.
• It is a search of truth.
• It is a living force.
• Philosophy is a science.
• It is a daily activity.
• It is a trial for truth.
• It is a synoptic view of the whole universe (Holistic view).
• It is a theory of education, in its most general phase (Dewey).
• It is a view of life, it provides direction of living and offers a design for living.
• It is a mental activity.

SCOPE:

The scope of Philosophy is basically on three aspects. They are:

1. Metaphysical Problems (Problems of Reality): The problems of reality are solved by different philosophers in different ways.
• Its main problems are:
• What is the ultimate reality?
• Is it one or two or many? 
• Basic aspects of Reality- There are three basic aspects of reality:
• Self-mind and body,
• God,
• World-Dalton-atoms.
2. Epistemological Problems: 
• Theory of Knowledge: The Universe is full of knowledge. We have a great number of problems like the questions concerning man’s life, place and prospects in the universe. 
• Sources of knowledge:
• Experience.
• Reason-rationalism (Rational thinking).
• Skepticism (doubt).
• Agnosticism (ignores all knowledge).
• Experimentalism.
• Intuitive.
• Revelation. 
3. Axiology: It is a study of values and value judgement. It studies two kinds of values -Ethics and Aesthetics.