philosophy

English

Alternative forms

• philosophie (obsolete)
• phylosophie (obsolete)
• phylosophy (nonstandard)

Etymology

From Middle English philosophie, Old French philosophie, and their source, Latin philosophia, from Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía), from φίλος (phílos, “loving”) + σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”). Synchronically, philo- +‎ -sophy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɒsəfi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

philosophy (countable and uncountable, plural philosophies)

1. (uncountable, originally) The love of wisdom.
2. (uncountable) An academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism.

   Philosophy is often divided into five major branches: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.

   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

3. (countable) A comprehensive system of belief.
4. (countable) A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain.

   a philosophy of government;   a philosophy of education

5. (countable) A general principle (usually moral).
6. (archaic) A broader branch of (non-applied) science.
7. (French printing, dated) Synonym of small pica.

Meronyms

• See also Thesaurus:philosophy

Derived terms

Terms derived from philosophy

• analytic philosophy
• antiphilosophy
• astrophilosophy
• biophilosophy
• continental philosophy
• counterphilosophy
• cyberphilosophy
• Doctor of Philosophy
• ecophilosophy
• ethnophilosophy

• geophilosophy
• metaphilosophy
• moral philosophy
• natural philosophy
• neurophilosophy
• nonphilosophy
• perennial philosophy
• personal philosophy
• philosophize
• philosophylike

• philosophy of mind
• philosophy of science
• physiophilosophy
• pseudophilosophy
• psychophilosophy
• religiophilosophy
• sociophilosophy
• speculative philosophy
• theophilosophy
• xenophilosophy

Related terms

Related terms

• philology
• philosopher
• philosophic

• philosophical
• philosophically

Translations

the pursuit of wisdom

• Belarusian: філасо́фія (filasófija)
• Burmese: ဒဿနဗေဒ (da.ssa.na.beda.)
• Dutch: wijsbegeerte (nl) f, filosofie (nl) f
• Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)

  Ancient Greek: φιλοσοφία f (philosophía)

• Japanese: 悟り (ja) (さとり, satori)
• Macedonian: мудрување n (mudruvanje)
• Old English: ūþwitegung f
• Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
• Ukrainian: філосо́фія (uk) f (filosófija)

academic discipline

• Arabic: فَلْسَفَة‎‎ f (falsafa)
• Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
• Balinese: ᬢᬢ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬯ (tattwa)
• Basque: filosofia
• Belarusian: філасо́фія f (filasófija)
• Bulgarian: филосо́фия (bg) f (filosófija)
• Burmese: ဒဿနဗေဒ (da.ssa.na.beda.)
• Catalan: filosofia (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哲学 (zh) (zhéxué)

• Czech: filozofie (cs) f, filosofie (cs) f
• Danish: filosofi (da) c
• Dutch: filosofie (nl) f, wijsbegeerte (nl) f
• Esperanto: filozofio (eo)
• Faroese: heimspeki f
• Finnish: filosofia (fi)
• French: philosophie (fr) f
• Galician: filosofía (gl) f
• Georgian: ფილოსოფია (pilosopia)
• German: Philosophie (de) f
• Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)

  Ancient Greek: φιλοσοφία f (philosophía)

• Hindi: दर्शन (hi) m (darśan)
• Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
• Ido: filozofio (io)
• Indonesian: filsafat (id), falsafah (id)
• Interlingua: philosophia
• Irish: fealsúnacht f
• Italian: filosofia (it) f
• Japanese: 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)
• Khmer: ទស្សនវិជ្ជា (km) (tʊəhsana vɨcchie)
• Korean: 철학 (ko) (cheolhak)
• Latin: philosophia (la) f
• Latvian: filozofija f

• Lithuanian: filosofija (lt) m
• Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
• Malay: falsafah (ms)
• Maori: whakaaromōhio
• Muong: tliết học
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: filosofi (no) m

  Nynorsk: filosofi m

• Old English: ūþwitegung f
• Persian: فلسفه‎‎ (fa) (falsafe)
• Polish: filozofia (pl) f
• Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
• Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
• Russian: филосо́фия (ru) f (filosófija)
• Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: филозофија f

  Roman: filozofija (sh) f

• Slovak: filozofia f
• Spanish: filosofía (es) f
• Swahili: falsafa (sw) class 9
• Swedish: filosofi (sv) c
• Tagalog: pilosopya, batnayan
• Tajik: фалсафа (tg) (falsafa)
• Tamil: மெய்யியல் (ta) (meyyiyal), தத்துவம் (ta) (tattuvam)
• Thai: ปรัชญา (th) (bpràt-yaa)
• Turkish: felsefe (tr)
• Ukrainian: філосо́фія (uk) f (filosófija)
• Urdu: فلسفہ‎‎
• Uyghur: پەلسەپە‎‎ (pelsepe)
• Vietnamese: triết học (vi)
• Volapük: filosop (vo)
• West Frisian: wiisbegearte
• Yiddish: פֿילאָסאָפֿיע‎‎ f (filosofye)

comprehensive system of belief

• Arabic: فَلْسَفَة‎‎ f (falsafa), مَذْهَب‎‎ (ar) m (maḏhab)
• Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
• Catalan: filosofia (ca)
• Czech: filozofie (cs) f
• Dutch: filosofie (nl) f
• Esperanto: filozofio (eo)
• Finnish: filosofia (fi)
• Galician: filosofía (gl) f
• Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)
• Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
• Japanese: 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)

• Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
• Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
• Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
• Russian: филосо́фия (ru) f (filosófija)
• Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: филозофија f

  Roman: filozofija (sh) f

• Swedish: filosofi (sv) c
• Ukrainian: філосо́фія (uk) f (filosófija)
• West Frisian: filosofy c

view regarding fundamental principles

• Arabic: مَذْهَب‎‎ (ar) m (maḏhab), عَقِيدَة‎‎ (ar) f (ʿaqīda)
• Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
• Catalan: filosofia (ca)
• Dutch: filosofie (nl) f
• Finnish: filosofia (fi)
• Galician: filosofía (gl) f
• Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)
• Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
• Japanese: 方針 (ja) (ほうしん, hōshin), 方向 (ja) (ほうこう, hōkō), 主義 (ja) (しゅぎ, shugi), (figuratively) 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)

• Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
• Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
• Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
• Russian: филосо́фия (ru) f (filosófija)
• Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: филозофија f

  Roman: filozofija (sh) f

• Swedish: filosofi (sv) c

general principle

• Arabic: مَبْدَأ‎‎ m (mabdaʾ), مَذْهَب‎‎ (ar) m (maḏhab)
• Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
• Catalan: filosofia (ca)
• Dutch: filosofie (nl) f
• Finnish: filosofia (fi), periaate (fi)
• Galician: filosofía (gl) f
• Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
• Japanese: 方針 (ja) (ほうしん, hōshin), 方向 (ja) (ほうこう, hōkō), 主義 (ja) (しゅぎ, shugi), (figuratively) 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)

• Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
• Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
• Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
• Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: филозофија f

  Roman: filozofija (sh) f

• Swedish: filosofi (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} filosoofia
• French: ^{(please verify)} philosophie (fr)
• German: ^{(please verify)} Philosophie (de) f
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} heimspeki (is)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} filosofia (it) f
• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} filosofija (lt) f
• Maltese: ^{(please verify)} filosofija f
• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 哲学 (zh) (zhéxué)

• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} filosofie f, ^{(please verify)} filozofie (ro) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} филозофија f

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} filozofija (sh) f

• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} filozofija (sh) f
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} filosofía (es) f
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} తత్వం (tatvaṃ), ^{(please verify)} తాత్వికత (tātvikata) h(taatvikata)

Verb

philosophy (third-person singular simple present philosophies, present participle philosophying, simple past and past participle philosophied)

1. (now rare) To philosophize.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
     , II.12:

     Plato hath (in my seeming) loved this manner of Philosophying, Dialogue wise in good earnest, that therby he might more decently place in sundry mouthes the diversity and variation of his owne conceits.

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of philosophical isms
• ideology

References

• “philosophy” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
• “philosophy” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

• "philosophy" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 235.