philosophy
    n 1: a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative
         by some group or school [syn: doctrine, philosophy,
         philosophical system, school of thought, ism]
    2: the rational investigation of questions about existence and
       knowledge and ethics
    3: any personal belief about how to live or how to deal with a
       situation; "self-indulgence was his only philosophy"; "my
       father's philosophy of child-rearing was to let mother do it"

Philosophy \Phi*los"o*phy\ (f[i^]*l[o^]s"[-o]*f[y^]), n.; pl.
   Philosophies (f[i^]*l[o^]s"[-o]*f[i^]z). [OE. philosophie,
   F. philosophie, L. philosophia, from Gr. filosofi`a. See
   Philosopher.]
   1. Literally, the love of, inducing the search after, wisdom;
      in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained
      by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and
      laws.
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   Note: When applied to any particular department of knowledge,
         philosophy denotes the general laws or principles under
         which all the subordinate phenomena or facts relating
         to that subject are comprehended. Thus philosophy, when
         applied to God and the divine government, is called
         theology; when applied to material objects, it is
         called physics; when it treats of man, it is called
         anthropology and psychology, with which are connected
         logic and ethics; when it treats of the necessary
         conceptions and relations by which philosophy is
         possible, it is called metaphysics.
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   Note: "Philosophy has been defined: -- the science of things
         divine and human, and the causes in which they are
         contained; -- the science of effects by their causes;
         -- the science of sufficient reasons; -- the science of
         things possible, inasmuch as they are possible; -- the
         science of things evidently deduced from first
         principles; -- the science of truths sensible and
         abstract; -- the application of reason to its
         legitimate objects; -- the science of the relations of
         all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason; --
         the science of the original form of the ego, or mental
         self; -- the science of science; -- the science of the
         absolute; -- the science of the absolute indifference
         of the ideal and real." --Sir W. Hamilton.
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   2. A particular philosophical system or theory; the
      hypothesis by which particular phenomena are explained.
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            [Books] of Aristotle and his philosophie. --Chaucer.
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            We shall in vain interpret their words by the
            notions of our philosophy and the doctrines in our
            school.                               --Locke.
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   3. Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment;
      equanimity; fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune
      with philosophy.
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            Then had he spent all his philosophy. --Chaucer.
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   4. Reasoning; argumentation.
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            Of good and evil much they argued then, . . .
            Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. --Milton.
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   5. The course of sciences read in the schools. --Johnson.
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   6. A treatise on philosophy.
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   Philosophy of the Academy, that of Plato, who taught his
      disciples in a grove in Athens called the Academy.

   Philosophy of the Garden, that of Epicurus, who taught in a
      garden in Athens.

   Philosophy of the Lyceum, that of Aristotle, the founder of
      the Peripatetic school, who delivered his lectures in the
      Lyceum at Athens.

   Philosophy of the Porch, that of Zeno and the Stoics; -- so
      called because Zeno of Citium and his successors taught in
      the porch of the Poicile, a great hall in Athens.
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philosophy

   See computer ethics, liar paradox, netiquette, proof.

PHILOSOPHY, n.  A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.