The Greek words from which “Philosophy” is formed mean “love of wisdom” and all great philosophers have been moved by an intense devotion to the search for wisdom. Philosophy takes no belief for granted but examines the grounds for those beliefs which make up people’s fundamental views of the world. Philosophers think about these beliefs as thoroughly and systematically as possible, using methods of conceptual analysis, reasoning, and detailed description.

What distinguishes Philosophy from the physical and social sciences is its concern not only with the truths which are discovered by means of specialized methods of investigation, but with the implications that such discoveries have for human beings in their relations with one another and the world. Moreover, Philosophy has an abiding interest in those basic assumptions about the nature of the physical and social world, and about the nature of enquiry itself, which underlie our scientific and practical endeavors.