Yamilette asked:

*
What is special about philosophy that distinguishes it from other intellectual endeavors like
mathematics, science and history?

*
Some people have claimed that philosophy is a purely abstract field that is of no help in dealing with
practical everyday problems. Based on your characterization of philosophy, what are your views
about this?

and Kanokwan asked:

I am wondering...why we must learn Philosophy...and what is the world without philosophy...?

============

What definition of philosophy, or characterization of its aims, methods or subject matter would
encompass all the questions and answers raised on these pages? I doubt whether any would.

There are branches of mathematics, notably set theory and foundational studies, as well as
intuitionist mathematics and logic, that have a strong philosophical component. The same is true of
quantum mechanics and cosmology in physics. In history, the philosophical question of the nature of
historical causation, or the criteria for evaluating a historical explanation are issues that historians
themselves discuss and do not merely brush to one side as 'the concern of philosophers'.

We philosophers love to be useful. Philosophers sit on committees debating euthanasia and genetic
research. They inspire politicians to write their speeches and election manifestos. But I believe the
search for a justification of philosophy in terms of its usefulness ultimately leads to a dead end.

It is a great thing when philosophical puzzlement propels the investigator — the mathematician, or the
physicist, or the historian — into aspects of their subject that they had not previously explored, into
new approaches and new ways of thinking. For one whose vocation lies elsewhere, the questions of
philosophy can be an inspiration, its methods a powerful tool of discovery.

For one whose vocation is to be a philosopher, the sole and complete justification for philosophy is a
sense of wonder that pursues questions for their own sake, for no other reason than because one
feels gripped by them. For those that need it, the question of justification is irrelevant; for those that
do not, the question has no answer.

Geoffrey Klempner