The best place to start in our attempt to define philosophy is with the etymology of the word itself. Most people are aware that the term is derived from two Greek words: philo (love) and sophia (wisdom). Philosophy, then, literally means "the love of wisdom." We each have a sense of what love means, but what exactly is wisdom? Although there are many different ideas about what wisdom is, we can define it as "the proper understanding about the nature of reality." The wise person, then, has a correct understand about his own nature, the nature of the universe and the nature of God (if, in fact, God actually exists). This understanding at the same time informs and influences the way he lives his life. A person is wise, in other words, if he has a correct understanding about how things actually are and lives his life accordingly.
Philosophy has also been connected with the quest for the truth. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, for example, maintained that unlike the other human beings who are concerned with the hustle and bustle of life, "the philosopher seeks for truth." The aim of philosophy, however, is not this truth or that truth, my truth or your truth, but "The Truth". The truth that philosophy searches for is a truth that applies to all people at all times. This truth has been referred to as a transcendent truth, because it is not restricted to individual perceptions of what is true or false. So now we know that philosophy involves a quest for the truth for the sake of wisdom. The next question we have to ask is how do we acquire this truth. Socrates, the father of western philosophy, once said: "The greatest good for human beings is daily to discuss virtue, and all those other things about which you hear me conversing and examining myself and others, for the unexamined life is not worth living." According to Socrates, philosophy involves a critical examination of reality that is characterized by rational inquiry. A rational form of inquiry is one that is based exclusively on sound arguments and not on opinions, feelings or beliefs. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having opinions, feeling or beliefs about important matters, but the discipline of philosophy asks us to be able to justify why we hold these opinions, feelings or beliefs. If we want to be engaged in philosophical discourse, therefore, we need to support our views using logic rather than emotions.
Based upon what has been described above, our working definition of philosophy will look something like the following:
PHILOSOPHY = "A critical examination of reality characterized by rational inquiry that aims at the Truth for the sake of attaining wisdom."