Feb.25.1997
									Essay


                                      Originality of Philosophy


	What is philosophy?  What does a philosopher really do? Questions
like these can be answered in a review of Philosophy Now. What can
possibly be answered.....questions which have them. And what is it              
that philosophers study? Generally, most philosophers study questions in
which there is no rational or justifiable answer.  And the type of articles in the
magazine are very interesting because they elighten the reader to question the
answers.  Some of the articles in this issue are "Bakunin: Anarchist or
Antichrist?", "Practical Solipsism", "Introduction to Ontology", "Orwell and
Philosophy", some other brief articles, an Internet page, and even some
classifieds.  The overall view of this magazine was very intellectual and
professional because it did not contain any advertising throughout the
magazine.  The articles are more in the manner meant for either philosophers
or someone in school studying Philosophy,  or even anyone interested in a
very different approach to society.  


	An idea in the article "Practical Solipsism" reads:  "Solipsism - the
idea that only I exist and that you, and all other material things in the world
are mere figments of my imagination - is one of those peculiar notions that
make everybody realize just how barmy philosophers truly are." Philosophy
is often translated as the love of wisdom or the love of truth.  One way to get
a vague idea as to what philosophy is about is to dissect the subject and
investigate its skeleton. there are many branches in philosophy.  Metaphysics
is"(after-physics, after Aristotle's book of physics.)", and has questions about
the nature of time, categories of existence, including god.  Epistemology asks
what is knowledge? what is the difference between knowledge, belief and
opinion? Can we really know anything?  How could we know that we did? 
Logic questions the truth and even now employs a sort of algebra which is
used to crunch logical problems.  There is Philosophy of mind, which asks
questions about the human mind, how it thinks, and how is it related to the
body.  Ethics is like how are we living, what is good and bad, what is
unethical, and what is happiness.  Aesthetics asks mostly about beauty and
how to define it.  In particular though, there is political philosophy, and it
asks questions like What would Utopia be like? Is Utopia possible? How
should social life be organized?  In my opinion this philosophy is not one
related to our government but is very interesting to me. As I was reading,
many questions arose about our society and what I thought should be
changed.   Another Article that I went over was called "Ontology for
Beginners" and it was discussing the branch of metaphysics which examines
the nature and categories of existence.  What is the difference really existing
and only appearing to exist?  Does the external world really exist?  Do other
people really exist?  In what sense do numbers exist?  To an inexperienced
child these questions may never arise, but as one grows older questions
similar to these arise.  Some of the categories of existence are listed also. 
Realism is basically the theory that the other world exists independently of us. 
Idealism is the belief that the world and all it contains is all some sort of
strange exotic dream.
There is another very popular part of Idealism known as "Brain in a Vat". 
"you think you are wandering around the world, seeing, feeling, talking to
people. But suppose that, following a horrific accident, the doctors removed
your brain, put it in a vat of nutrient fluids and kept it alive.  Suppose that to
keep you sane they hooked up the severed nerve endings of your brain to
some very expensive medical equipment and then fed you with signals that
your brain interpreted as sights, sounds, smells and so on.  The question is,
would you were just a brain in a vat at all, if the illusion was perfect, and they
didn't tell you?  How would you know?  How do you know that the world out
there really exists?  The category of Relativism deals with the idea that there
are many ways in which to see the world. It all depends on your point of
view.  There are so many more and even everyday a new category could be
added.  


	The articles contained in this issue of Philosophy Now contains a very
descriptive overview of philosophy.  This makes it even easier for any person
to commit him or herself to reading, because it goes over the fundamental
principals and categories of philosophy. Basically, any person from sixth
grade on could read this journal.









Bibliography:


Philosophy Now  Issue 16 Autumn 1996


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