Philosophy

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Philosophy is the study of knowledge and human actions. It is not really part of science because it does not generally try to use the scientific method (the way science studies the world), but tries to answer big questions by coming up with realistic answers and asking "why not?"

Philosophy competes with religion, science and other ways to explain some things. These are some of the questions that philosophy asks:

In metaphysics :

What is "to be" a being? Or, what does "is" mean?
What is sure and what is not sure to happen to a being?
Is there anything very special about being a human being?
Is there anything very special about being an animal?
Is there anything very special about being alive at all?
If not, why do we seem to always behave as if there is?

In ethics :

What is ethics? What does it mean that something is right or wrong or good or bad?
What is justice ?

In epistemology

What can be said about science? What is science?
What does it mean when we say that something is true?
How do we know? How do we agree on what we know?
What is philosophy?

In Aesthetics

What is beauty ?

These questions are probably not asked by any animal other than humans, so, philosophers would have no job if they did not think there was some point in humans asking them of other humans. Most especially, students asking them of philosophers. Whether this is doing anyone any good is something that is very often disputed. Some people think philosophy is just politics.

But, also, some people think politics is just disagreements about philosophy which are not very efficient, and end up with people trying to force each other to do things, or not to do things, by law and violence. This debate has been going on for thousands of years - as have debates about all of the questions above.

For an example of a philosophical problem, see the god paradox.

Philosophers

Socrates