Philosophy is defined as something that is part of a person’s daily life. In ancient Greece, philosophy means love for wisdom, in which people invest deeply on knowledge than in any other matter on Earth. To them, intelligence is the most essential character of a person. One of the products of the great Philosophy is Socrates. Today, Socrates is known to be one of the fathers of Philosophy (Holbing).
Through the years, many definitions of Philosophy have persisted. One of these definitions that have been widely known in the field of Philosophy is the definition of Marcus Aurelius who is a famous philosopher in his times and a Roman Emperor. To him, the business of doing philosophy was more important than the conclusions that people might come to. The process of thinking as a person is more essential than the generalizations that people arrive too after observations.
However, due to the rise of many famous philosophers and definitely a lot of philosophical thoughts in which there existed clashing and overlapping thoughts with the other, it has come to a point that the concept of philosophy can be concluded to be abused by the people. It has come to a point that it has been used in the fields of politics, theology and most especially in the moral matters in which usage of Philosophy must be maintained and organized. People thought that philosophy can lead them to wise decisions however religious people have reckoned the idea since they do believe that their gods are the only capable beings that can provide wise and intelligent acts. Therefore, as it has been widely used unlimitedly, many opposing sides existed, minimizing the credibility of philosophy.
There is actually an observable direct proportion between the philosophers and the number of philosophical thoughts. These are products of the questions that go around the mind of the people and they did not stop until they have arrived into a theory on how one works, per se. This curiosity led to the increase in number of philosophical thoughts and some of these will be described on the next paragraphs.
According to Newall in 2010, five most commonly known divisions of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and logic. Metaphysics is the division which is concerned in the reality or what is there. Some philosophers who practice metaphysics would always ask, “Do soul really flies? If not, why not?”
The second division of philosophy is epistemology. Epistemology is the study of what could be known and discovered and how could it be known and discovered. It has been discovered after philosophers started to think why there is something and why do we know such things.
The third division is ethics. Ethics has something to do with the good and bad. It usually deals with differentiating what should be done and what should be avoided. This gives way to the existence of the good and the evils. Among all the fields and divisions of philosophy, this is the most obvious and simple yet always present in everyday life.
Aesthetics is the fourth division of philosophy. This deals more on designing, art and photographic and/or graphic literatures. It concerns beauty and recognizes music and melodies.
The last division according to Newall is logic. Logic is something that deeply tackles reasoning and common sense. Life and logic, to the philosophers practicing this division, are therefore inseparable.
After defining the five divisions of philosophy, one of the five will be delimited. This is the first division or the Metaphysics. There are two philosophers who tried to define metaphysics and these are Ludwig and Wittgensteins and Martin Heidegger. The first to be discussed in Witthensteins and Ludwig’s followed by Heidegger and then the next paragraph will further discuss the differences and similarities of the two philosophers as they discuss and introduce metaphysics.
Ludwig and Wittgensteins lived in the same generation approximately from 1889 to 1951. They have been considered to be one of the most influential philosophers in the twentieth century. Schopenhauer and Bernard Rusell influenced most of their works as philosophers. One published literature that reached almost the world is their work on Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. This work, as they stated, are not into ethics but more related to metaphysics. To the two philosophers, the real spirit of life and of the world as well is ‘This is how things are.’
The next philosopher is Martin Heidegger. Martin Heidegger is a philosopher coming from Germany who is known as an inspirational thinker in the Continental custom. He authored the book of Introduction to Metaphysics which became famous of its interpretation of the thoughts from Greece and due to the acknowledgement of the Nazi Party given that it was published in the span of World War II. This greatly tackles the twentieth century philosophy—just the same as what was done by Ludwig and Wittgensteins.
Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the two published literature which is the book by Ludwig and Wittgensteins, and the other one that is authored by Martin Heidegger has a mutually exclusive and almost overlapping definition. Both of the literatures are actually dealing with knowing the reality and the basis of reality per se. Since they are both great and influential philosophers who write philosophies of the twentieth century, it is given that there is opposing or clashing explanation knowing that they are of different environment and perspectives in general.
There is neither right nor wrong in the field of philosophy and people should understand that. Philosopher make theories and changes which they ought to bring in the society just like the scientists, engineers and technology experts. They make stories and they keep on relating it to everyday life because they know that there is a need for it to be done. Philosophers do feel that that they are important to the lives of the people in the world as they understand how people need to arrive at a less complex, more comprehensible and real solutions to their everyday solution. They understand their sense of experience and that is how simply Philosophy is in one’s daily lives.
Works Cited:
Newall, Paul. “What is Philosophy?.” Galilean-Library. The Galilean Magazine and Library. 2004. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
Richter, Duncan. Ludwig Wittsgeintein. U.S.A.: Virginia Military Institute. Print.
