To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy. – Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew I.1
Philosophy is as ancient as thinking and wondering. The etymology of the word in most European languages is from Greek, meaning love of wisdom or knowledge. Knowledge is what we know; wisdom is the capacity to use knowledge for individual and collective good. Hebrew and Russian use the same word for it as English. Arab thinkers coined the word falsifa for philo-sophy. In Sanskrit the word for philosophy is darshana which means a view or vision of something significant. In my language Tamil one calls it tattuvam which means essence. Combining these we may regard philosophy as love for views on the essence of things.
To all appearances the world consists of gross matter, subtle energy, and throbbing life-forms. Physics studies matter and energy in systematic ways. Biology investigates life-forms. But lived life is more than a form: It is a series of fleeting experiences, good, bad, and neutral. For humans these include joy and sorrow, hope and despondency.
Beyond sensory titillations we have a mind that is capable of extraordinary feats. One of these is reflection on what is experienced. Philosophy is serious reflection on any aspect of human life. In simple terms, then, the moment we go beyond just reacting to sensory inputs and begin to comment on any experience, we are philosophizing. One is philosophizing even when one makes fun of philosophy with answers like: What is matter? No matter. What is mind? Never mind. Pascal put it this way: Se moquer de la philosophie, c’est vraiment philosopher: Ridiculing philosophy is real-ly philosophizing.
No thinking person can escape from philosophizing now and then. So we are all philosophers of sorts. I say of sorts because some do it at loftier levels than others. Most people who have seen the Niagara Falls, the Himalayas, or other natural wonders exclaim, “How fantastic!” “How magnificent!” But some write poems on what they see, as Robert Southey did in The Cataract of Lodore. Many people witness quarrels and rivalries, broken love and exploitation. But some turn them into novels or epics.
So it is with philosophy. Reflection on any aspect of human thought and experience is sublimated to serious philosophy when it ascends to higher regions of thought. A sandwich at a burger-joint is food as much as a gourmet banquet, but there is a difference. You may tell a despondent friend, “Come on, don’t say life is worthless!” But the poet says, “Tell me not in mournful numbers life is but an empty dream!” So it is between the simple exclamation, “We can’t be sure of anything!” and a treatise on Agnosticism. There is a difference between a limpid airless balloon and a full blown colorful one gracefully soaring in the air.
In principle, one can philosophize on any subject: on a sport or the stock market, on a personal loss or politics, or even on philosophy. But there are some topics that have inspired philosophers over the ages. These are the traditional branches of academic philosophy. Thus, many have reflected on human behavior in terms of its merits and demerits: on good behavior and bad; on virtue and vice. Such reflections are part of ethics which is a branch of philosophy. Or again, one can argue about what is beauty or ugliness. That would be part of aesthetics, another branch of philosophy. Consider human knowledge. How can one be sure that this knowledge is reliable? The careful exploration into its source and validity as of beliefs is a branch of philosophy known to as epistemology.
Then there is the God of religions who is worshiped, prayed to, and extolled in hymns. One may reflect on Gods, Divine attributes, and on the validity of God-belief. Such reflections constitute theology. Consider society and government, human welfare and law. All these are part of politics on which topic too one may philosophize. From the moment we wake up in the morning till we doze off – whether for a siesta, at a lecture, while reading an essay, or at night – everything seems as real as the bills to be paid. But then, during sleeping hours we experience totally different things which seem no less real at that time. So the question is, what is really real? The systematic probe into the nature and dimensions of reality is called metaphysics.
Systematic reflections on different domains of thought and experience make up the specialized discipline of technical philosophy. Bertrand Russell famously described philosophy as a “No Man’s Land between science with its definite knowledge and religion with its dogmas.” In this he illustrates the fact that even keen philosophers can’t avoid their biases, for he could simply have said science and religion instead of characterizing them.
Science succeeds by its methodology and connects the human mind to the nature and functioning of the phenomenal world. Religion enriches the human spirit by connecting it to a world of meaning, purpose, values and community. Philosophy seeks a rational and insightful framework for both scientific knowledge and religious perspectives. It reflects on the foundations on which the structures of science, religion and all human thought, experience, and behavior are built. Often these reflections depend on the culture and background of the philosopher.
As there are many human minds, there are also many philosophies. Like fruits and flowers, philosophies come in a variety of forms and colors. Like poems and music, they come in many meters and melodies. I refer to this range and variety of philosophical positions polysophy: Views and visions in multiple splendors. A Sanskrit equivalent would be bahudarshana: multiple visions.
Polysophy has enriched individuals by provoking them to think. Philosophers have affected societies by stirring people to act or abstain, they have shaped our pictures of the world and influenced the course of history. In their impact they are somewhat like religions, but less overtly so.If we probe into the roots of our opinions and convictions we will discover that philosophers, unbeknownst to us, have played a role in shaping them.
Spurts of Thought 