Philosophy

Aristotle contemplates a bust of Homer (Rembrandt)

The word ‘philosophy’ literally means love of wisdom. The search for wisdom is as old as humanity itself and various traditions of philosophy have sought to contribute to it. The great philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume and Kant reflected on the nature of the world and of humanity’s place within it. Today Philosophy as a discipline continues this tradition. Philosophy investigates the basic claims science makes about the work as well as the principles that govern human life and morality, subjecting to critical scrutiny and frequently taking issue with received wisdom on these matters. Topics of philosophical interest are wide-ranging and rich in their complexity and intractability – questions such as: whether it is possible to travel into the past, whether euthanasia is morally justified, how the brain can give rise to consciousness, how much of what we think we know we really do know, what it is to think and act rationally, are all perennial interest to Philosophy, for none of these questions has been definitively answered.