Forget the dictionary definition for a moment - "philosophy" is about asking questions. And when the question has been answered, the philosopher asks questions about the answer thus obtained. This is a continuous and ongoing process with no well-defined end.

The dictionary definition? Well, the first definition at http://www.dictionary.com is "the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct". There's some "loaded" words in there - "rational", "truth", "being", "knowledge".

"Rational" implies that one of the philosophical tools is "reason". The aim is to find the "truth", to acquire "knowledge", and maybe how this truth or knowledge can be known.

Scientists are also rational seekers after "truth" and "knowledge" but they approach it in a different way to philosophers - when you ask a scientist why the sky is blue, he would talk about the relative transmission and absorbtion of red and blue light and maybe do some experiments and come in the end to a 'scientific' truth.

The philosopher on the other hand wonders why we have the sensation of blueness. He wonders if the sensation of blueness that I have is identical (in some sense) to the sensation of blueness that he himself has. He wonders how the arrival of a shower of photons is translated in the body and the mind to a sense of blueness.

The scientist will perform experiment and measure things. All the philosopher's 'experiments' are in his head. The philosopher wonders what the scientist is doing, what constitutes a 'test' or 'trial', how these tests and trials relate to previous (and future) tests and trials and how the whole process relates to other science and "reality".

Ah, reality! A scientist assumes reality as a fact. His readings are real. The philosopher wonders what the scientist's reality actually is. Can it be shown to exist? Does it exist? The scientist is generally too busy to ask and answer these questions, but most scientists would have to have a certain amount of philosopher in their makeup, otherwise they would not ask so many questions.

Of course you may think that the above is "pie in the sky" twaddle. In that case, I say "Great! Persuade me!". Because that's another thing about philosophy - there is no requirement that any philosopher agrees with any other philosopher. In fact if you ask twenty philosophers a question you are likely to get a lot more than twenty answers. After a long period of discussion.

So what do I intend for these pages? Well, I'm not going to start off with a fixed format and a fixed agenda. I going to free-flow articles on anything that catches my fancy. However, after I've done a few I might categories things, just to make them easier to navigate. So we'll see where the future takes us.

If you wish to contact me, please use my feedback page. If you wish to ask a philosophical question, I have a page for that purpose!.