Philosophy Overview

What is Philosophy?

Why study it?

Philosophy investigates the most basic questions facing human beings: questions of existence, meaning and value. What can we know? What is real? What is the good life? These questions have found expression in an ever-expanding set of philosophical texts. The philosophical investigation of such issues is always undertaken in dialogue with other philosophers, past and present. Philosophers critically evaluate the answers proposed by ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, and compare them to those of modern philosophers such as Descartes and Kant, as well as to proposals from more recent philosophers such as Wittgenstein and de Beauvoir. Philosophical investigations of this sort naturally lead to self-examination and to the clarification of one's own basic commitments and values. Philosophers generally believe the unexamined life is not worth living. So why study philosophy? The study of philosophy deepens and enriches our lives.