PHILOSOPHY
doctrine, philosophy, philosophical system, school of thought, ism
(noun) a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school
philosophy
(noun) 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
(noun) the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
philosophy (countable and uncountable, plural philosophies)
(uncountable, originally) The love of wisdom.
(uncountable) An academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism.
(countable) A comprehensive system of belief.
(countable) A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain.
(countable) A general principle (usually moral).
(archaic) A broader branch of (non-applied) science.
A calm and thoughtful demeanor; calmness of temper.
(printing, dated) synonym of small pica (especially in French printing).
Meronyms
• See also philosophy
Verb
philosophy (third-person singular simple present philosophies, present participle philosophying, simple past and past participle philosophied)
(now rare) To philosophize.
Source: Wiktionary
Phi*los"o*phy, n.; pl. Philosophies. Etym: [OE. philosophie, F.
philosophie, L. philosophia, from Gr. Philosopher.]
1. Literally, the love of, including the search after, wisdom; in
actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and
resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws.
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.
Note: "Philosophy has been defined: tionscience 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 scienceof the
absolute indifference of the ideal and real." Sir W. Hamilton.
2. A particular philosophical system or theory; the hypothesis by
which particular phenomena are explained.
[Books] of Aristotle and his philosophie. Chaucer.
We shall in vain interpret their words by the notions of our
philosophy and the doctrines in our school. Locke.
3. Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment; equanimity;
fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune with philosophy.
Then had he spent all his philosophy. Chaucer.
4. Reasoning; argumentation.
Of good and evil much they argued then, . . . Vain wisdom all, and
false philosophy. Milton.
5. The course of sciences read in the schools. Johnson.
6. A treatise on philosophy. 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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition