Philosopher

Plato was among the most famous Philosophers of antiquity.

Confucius was one of the most famous philosophers in history.

A philosopher is a person with an extensive knowledge of philosophy who uses this knowledge in their work, typically to solve philosophical problems. Philosophy is concerned with studying the subject matter of fields such as aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, as well as social philosophy and political philosophy.

There is a sense in which every human being is a philosopher, if they accept a very humanistic and generous interpretation. This is to say that every human being has a unique contribution of ideas to the society. However, a more generally accepted interpretation in academia is that a philosopher is one who has attained a Ph.D. in philosophy, teaches philosophy, has published literature in a field of philosophy in a peer-reviewed journal, or is widely accepted by other philosophers as a philosopher.

Education

Philosophers usually cover a breadth of topics within philosophy in their undergraduate education, and then proceed to specialize in topics of their own choice at the graduate level. In some universities, a qualifying exam serves to test both the breadth and depth of a student's understanding of philosophy; the students who pass are permitted to work on a doctoral dissertation.

Motivation

Though it is true that philosophy finds diverse applications in many areas of research, a philosopher does not determine the value of an idea by the diversity of its applications. Philosophy is interesting in its own right, and a substantial minority of philosophers investigate the many and varied interpretations of ideas studied in philosophy itself.

Differences with scientists

Philosophy differs from natural science in that scientists subject truth claims to tests by empirical experiments, while philosophical propositions may be tested by thought experiments and are conclusions of philosophical arguments.

Women in Philosophy

See also: List of female philosophers

While the majority of philosophers are male, there have been some demographic changes since the 20th century. Some prominent female philosophers are Judith Butler, Marilyn McCord Adams, Patricia Churchland, and Susan Haack.

Prizes in Philosophy

Prominent prizes in Philosophy include the Avicenna Prize, the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy and the Rolf Schock Prizes.

Quotations about Philosophers

The following are quotations about Philosophers, or by Philosophers.

• "The philosopher as an analyst is not concerned with the physical properties of things, but only with the way in which we speak about them." -- Alfred Jules Ayer in Language, Truth, and Logic (1936).

• "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." -- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, thesis 11.

• "Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars." -- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, Chapter IV, Part iii, p. 74.

• "It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards." --Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers (1843)

See also

Some notable Philosophers include:

• Aristotle
• Parmenides
• Zeno of Elea
• Thomas Aquinas
• Avicenna
• Confucius
• Jacques Derrida
• René Descartes
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• David Hume
• Immanuel Kant
• Søren Kierkegaard
• Laozi
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Plato
• Willard Van Orman Quine
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Arthur Schopenhauer
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Francis Bacon
• George Berkeley
• Benedict de Spinoza
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• Karl Popper
• Bertrand Russell
• Alfred North Whitehead
• Gottlob Frege
• David Kellogg Lewis
• John Venn
• John Stuart Mill

Notes

• List of female philosophers
• List of philosophers