1.
[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;
- Example: "self-indulgence was his only philosophy"
- Example: "my father's philosophy of child-rearing was to let mother do it"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. A particular philosophical system or theory; the
hypothesis by which particular phenomena are explained.
[1913 Webster]
[Books] of Aristotle and his philosophie. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
We shall in vain interpret their words by the
notions of our philosophy and the doctrines in our
school. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
3. Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment;
equanimity; fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune
with philosophy.
[1913 Webster]
Then had he spent all his philosophy. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
4. Reasoning; argumentation.
[1913 Webster]
Of good and evil much they argued then, . . .
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
5. The course of sciences read in the schools. --Johnson.
[1913 Webster]
6. A treatise on philosophy.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
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"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
220 Moby Thesaurus words for "philosophy":
Aristotelianism, Berkeleianism, Bradleianism,
Buddha-like composure, Cynicism, Cyrenaic hedonism, Cyrenaicism,
Epicureanism, Fichteanism, Hegelianism, Heideggerianism,
Heracliteanism, Herbartianism, Humism, Kantianism, Leibnizianism,
Marxism, Mimamsa, Neo-Hegelianism, Neo-Pythagoreanism,
Neoplatonism, Newtonian physics, Oriental calm, Peripateticism,
Platonism, Purva Mimamsa, Pyrrhonism, Pythagoreanism, Sankhya,
Schellingism, Scotism, Socratism, Sophism, Sophistry,
Spencerianism, Stoicism, Thomism, Weltanschauung, acosmism,
acoustics, aerophysics, aesthetics, agnosticism, animalism,
animatism, animism, aplomb, applied physics, astrophysics, atomism,
attitude, basic conductor physics, biophysics, body of ideas,
calm disposition, calm of mind, calmness, chemical physics,
composure, control, cool, coolheadedness, coolness, cosmotheism,
countenance, criticism, cryogenics, crystallography, cytophysics,
deduction, deductive reasoning, deism, demonstration,
dialectical materialism, discourse, discourse of reason,
discursive reason, dispassion, dualism, easy mind, eclecticism,
egoism, electron physics, electronics, electrophysics, empiricism,
epistemology, equanimity, ethics, ethos, eudaemonism,
existentialism, feeling, geophysics, hedonism, humanism,
hylomorphism, hylotheism, hylozoism, icy calm, idea, idealism,
ideology, immaterialism, imperturbability, imperturbation,
indisturbance, individualism, induction, inductive reasoning,
intuitionism, logic, logical thought, macrophysics, materialism,
mathematical physics, mechanics, mechanism, medicophysics,
mental composure, mentalism, metaphysics, microphysics, monism,
mysticism, natural philosophy, natural science, naturalism,
neocriticism, nominalism, notion, nuclear physics, ontologism,
ontology, opinion, optics, optimism, organic mechanism, organicism,
outlook, panpsychism, pantheism, patience, peace of mind,
peacefulness, pessimism, philosophic composure, philosophicalness,
physic, physical chemistry, physical science, physicalism,
physicism, physicochemistry, physicomathematics, physics,
placidity, pluralism, point of view, positivism, pragmaticism,
pragmatism, proof, psychism, psychological hedonism, psychophysics,
quiet, quiet mind, quietude, radiation physics, radionics,
ratiocination, rationalism, rationality, rationalization,
rationalizing, realism, reason, reasonableness, reasoning,
resignation, restraint, sang-froid, sangfroid, secular humanism,
self-control, self-possession, semiotic, semiotics, sensationalism,
sentiment, serenity, skepticism, solar physics,
solid-state physics, soothingness, sophistry, specious reasoning,
statics, stereophysics, stoicism, substantialism, sweet reason,
syncretism, system of ideas, system of theories, tenets, theism,
theoretical physics, thermodynamics, thinking, thoughtfulness,
tranquillity, transcendentalism, unruffledness, utilitarianism,
viewpoint, voluntarism, world view, zoophysics
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
philosophy
See computer ethics, liar paradox, netiquette, proof.
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
PHILOSOPHY, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.