西方哲学
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西洋哲學（Western philosophy） 或作西方哲學，是關於哲學思維，起始於古希臘（參見希臘哲學）與古西亞（參見阿拉伯宗教）而延續至今的過程。「哲學」（philosophy）兩字來自西方，出自古希臘詞彙「philosophia」（φιλοσοφια）；按字面解釋，即「愛智」（philein = 喜愛，sophia = 智慧，即理論化的觀感或對宇宙的洞察）。然而，許多非西方的宗教或思想也採用「哲學」做為與西方哲學相似的意思，即關於宇宙心智的描述之詞彙（參見東方哲學）。 西洋哲學對西方宗教、科學與政治有驚人的影響，同時也受其巨大的影響著。事實上，這些領域的中心概念可被視為西洋哲學的元素或分支。對古希臘人而言，這些領域往往合而為一。如此，在西方，哲學是個向外擴展且抽象模糊的概念。然而今日，普遍將哲學從其他學科分割出來是種看法認為哲學是種比其他學科「更深奧」且更理性、基礎與寰宇性的思考方式。 歷史上，古希臘哲學家從未提出一份抽象且過於泛泛的說法，宣稱有一種「西洋的」哲學以和「東方的」或其他非特定地理形容詞做區隔。關於有種「西洋的」哲學之主張是為了與最先出現在1800年代晚期與1900年代早期的普世哲學主張區別。古代希臘與羅馬哲學家最早嘗試提出寰宇性的知識主張，就如同今天許多關於科學方法的看法，數學、幾何學與天文學中關於哲學與邏輯的基礎原理不僅存在於「西洋的」發源地。許多古代哲學家並非根據某種不精確、少見的抽象地理詞彙劃分哲學且甚少關於特定哲學家、民族、語言、宗教或他們的特定學說之專有名詞。
[编辑] 起源「哲學家」（philosopher）與「哲學」（philosophy）兩詞皆源自希臘思想家畢達哥拉斯（Питагор，參見第歐根尼·拉爾修：De vita et moribus philosophorum,I, 12；西塞羅：《碎乳香辯論》, V, 8-9）。會將此歸功於他是根據一本失傳著作《Herakleides Pontikos》其中一頁，裡頭描述亞里士多德（Питагор）。該作被認為當今畢達哥拉斯廣泛流傳的傳說之一部分。 「哲學家」取代了「詭辯家」（sophist，源自於「sophoi」），後者原來描述「智者」、修辭學（rhetoric）教師等雅典式民主中扮演重要角色的人物。 "Philosopher" replaced the word "sophist" (from sophoi), which was used to describe "wise men," teachers of rhetoric, who were important in Athenian democracy. Some of the most famous sophists were what we would now call philosophers, but Plato's dialogues often used the two terms to contrast those who are devoted to seeking wisdom (philosophers) from those who arrogantly claim to have it (sophists). Socrates (at least, as portrayed by Plato) frequently characterized the sophists as incompetents or charlatans, who hid their ignorance behind word play and flattery, and so convinced others of what was baseless or untrue. Moreover, the sophists were paid for their explorations. To this day, "sophist" is often used as a derogatory term for one who merely persuades rather than reasons. The scope of philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of (at least some of) the ancient philosophers, was all intellectual endeavors. This included the problems of philosophy as they are understood today; but it also included many other disciplines, such as pure mathematics and natural sciences such as physics, astronomy, and biology. (Aristotle, for example, wrote on all of these topics; and as late as the 17th century, these fields were still referred to as branches of "natural philosophy"). Over time, academic specialization and the rapid technical advance of the special sciences led to the development of distinct disciplines for these sciences, and their separation from philosophy: mathematics became a specialized science in the ancient world, and "natural philosophy" developed into the disciplines of the natural sciences over the course of the scientific revolution. Today, philosophical questions are usually explicitly distinguished from the questions of the special sciences, and characterized by the fact that (unlike those of the sciences) they are the sort of questions which are foundational and abstract in nature, and which are not amenable to being answered by experimental means. [编辑] 分支Philosophical inquiry is often divided into several major "branches" based on the questions typically addressed by people working in different parts of the field. In the ancient world, the most influential division of the subject was the Stoics' division of philosophy into Logic, Ethics, and Physics (conceived as the study of the nature of the world, and including both natural science and metaphysics). In contemporary philosophy, specialties within the field are more commonly divided into metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics (which together comprise axiology). Logic is sometimes included as another main branch of philosophy, sometimes as a separate science which philosophers often happen to work on, and sometimes just as a characteristically philosophical method applying to all branches of philosophy. Within these broad branches there are numerous sub-disciplines of philosophy. The interest in particular sub-disciplines waxes and wanes over time; sometimes sub-disciplines become particularly hot topics and can occupy so much space in the literature that they almost seem like major branches in their own right. (Over the past 40 years or so philosophy of mind — which is, strictly speaking, mainly a sub-discipline of metaphysics — has taken on this position within Analytic philosophy, and has attracted so much attention that some suggest philosophy of mind as the paradigm for what contemporary Analytic philosophers do.) Some of the many sub-disciplines within philosophy include:
[编辑] 西洋哲學與其他學科[编辑] 自然科學Originally the term "philosophy" was applied to all intellectual endeavour. Aristotle studied what would now be called biology, meteorology, physics, and cosmology, alongside his metaphysics and ethics. Even in the eighteenth century physics and chemistry were still classified as "natural philosophy", that is, the philosophical study of nature. Today these latter subjects are popularly referred to as sciences, and as separate from philosophy. But the distinction is not clear; some philosophers still contend that science retains an unbroken --and unbreakable -- link to philosophy. More recently, psychology, economics, sociology, and linguistics were once the domain of philosophers insofar as they were studied at all, but now have only a weaker connection with the field. In the late twentieth century cognitive science and artificial intelligence could be seen as being forged in part out of "philosophy of mind." Philosophy is done primarily through reflection. It does not tend to rely on experiment. However, in some ways philosophy is close to science in its character and method; some Analytic philosophers have suggested that the method of philosophical analysis allows philosophers to emulate the methods of natural science; Quine holds that philosophy just is a branch of natural science, simply the most abstract one. This approach, now common, is called philosophical naturalism. Philosophers have always devoted some study to science and the scientific method, and to logic, and this involves, indirectly, studying the subject matters of those sciences. Whether philosophy also has its own, distinct subject matter is a contentious point. Traditionally ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics have all been philosophical subjects, but many philosophers have, especially in the twentieth century, rejected these as futile questions (ie, much, though not all, of the Vienna Circle). Philosophy has also concerned itself with explaining the foundations and character knowledge in general (of science, or history), and in this case it would be a sort of "science of science" but some now hold that this cannot consist in any more than clarifying the arguments and claims of other sciences. This suggests that philosophy might be the study of meaning and reasoning generally; but some still would claim either that this is not a science, or that if it is it ought not to be pursued by philosophers. All these views have something in common: whatever philosophy essentially is or is concerned with, it tends on the whole to proceed more "abstractly" than most (or most other) natural sciences. It does not depend as much on experience and experiment, and does not contribute as directly to technology. It clearly would be a mistake to identify philosophy with any one natural science; whether it can be identified with science very broadly construed is still an open question. [编辑] 科學哲學This is an active discipline pursued by both trained philosophers and scientists. Philosophers often refer to, and interpret, experimental work of various kinds (as in philosophy of physics and philosophy of psychology). But this is not surprising: such branches of philosophy aim at philosophical understanding of experimental work. It is not the philosophers in their capacity as philosophers, who perform the experiments and formulate the scientific theories under study. Philosophy of science should not be confused with science it studies any more than biology should be confused with plants and animals. [编辑] 本體論與宗教研究Like philosophy, most religious studies are not experimental. Parts of theology, including questions about the existence and nature of gods, clearly overlap with philosophy of religion. Aristotle considered theology a branch of metaphysics, the central field of philosophy, and most philosophers prior to the twentieth century have devoted significant effort to theological questions. So the two are not unrelated. But other part of religious studies, such as the comparison of different world religions, can be easily distinguished from philosophy in just the way that any other social science can be distinguished from philosophy. These are closer to history and sociology, and involve specific observations of particular phenomena, here particular religious practices. Nowadays religion plays a very marginal role in philosophy. The Empiricist tradition in modern philosophy often held that religious questions are beyond the scope of human knowledge, and many have claimed that religious language is literally meaningless: there are not even questions to be answered. Some philosophers have felt that these difficulties in evidence were irrelevant, and have argued for, against, or just about religious beliefs on moral or other grounds. Nonetheless, in the main stream of twentieth century philosophy there are very few philosophers who give serious consideration to religious questions. [编辑] 數學Mathematics uses very specific, rigorous methods of proof that philosophers sometimes (only rarely) try to emulate. Most philosophy is written in ordinary prose, and while it strives to be precise it does not usually attain anything like mathematical clarity. As a result, mathematicians hardly ever disagree about results, while philosophers of course do disagree about their results, as well as their methods. The philosophy of mathematics is a branch of philosophy of science; but in many ways mathematics has a special relationship to philosophy. This is because the study of logic is a central branch of philosophy, and mathematics is a paradigm example of logic. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries logic made great advances, and mathematics has been proven to be reducible to logic (at least, to first-order logic with some set theory). The use of formal, mathematical logic in philosophy now resembles the use of math in science, although it is not as frequent. [编辑] 參見
[编辑] 外部連結
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