Explaining what philosophy is is no easy task, not least because it’s so broad. Philosophy as a discipline includes questions about the ethical realm (e.g., what is right (and wrong), and what rightness is), and about the metaphysical realm (e.g., what spacetime is and whether God exists). Philosophy also includes questions about knowledge (whether we have any and how), about aesthetics (what artistic properties are and what kinds of things might have them), about minds (whether they are just brains, and whether computers might have them), as well as ones relating to numerous other fields such as logic and mathematics.
However, perhaps one way to characterise philosophy is that it concerns very broad and therefore abstract questions about the world, like the kind described above. It concerns the world and our concepts of it, which is why it tends to be done largely ‘in the head’. Philosophical thinking is where we get to when we start asking why about a certain thing, and then keep on asking why. One philosopher who perhaps asked too many questions for his own good is Socrates (469–399 BC), who famously declared that ‘the un-examined life is not worth living’. Despite never having written down a thing, Socrates lives on as a very important and memorable figure. He was known for drawing his fellow Athenians into conversations where he would subject them to rigorous adversarial questioning. The purpose of this was to determine their beliefs, highlight their ignorance, and awaken them from their critical complacency. Growing tired of his constant challenging of the status quo, Socrates’ fellow Athenians put him on trial for ‘corrupting the youth’ (many of whom admired him), and sentenced him to death by drinking hemlock (a kind of natural poison). | |||