What Is Philosophy?

J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig

Where am I or What?

From what causes do I derive my existence,

and to what condition shall I return?

Whose favor shall I court, and whose anger must I dread?

What beings surround me?

And on whom Have I any influence, or who have any influence on me?

I am confounded with all these questions,

and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable,

inviron’d with the deepest darkness,

and utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty.

DAVID HUME, A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE

Not every problem, nor every thesis, should be examined,

but only one which might puzzle one of those who need argument.

ARISTOTLE TOPICS 1.11 (105A1-5)

Ought not a Minister to have,

First, a good understanding, a clear apprehension, a sound judgment,

and a capacity of reasoningwith some closeness. . . .

Is not some acquaintance with what has been termed the second part of logic,

(metaphysics), if not so necessary as [logic itself], yet highly expedient?

Should not a Minister be acquainted with at least the

general grounds of natural philosophy?

JOHN WESLEY, ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY

1 INTRODUCTION

You are about to embark on an exciting and fascinating journey—the philosophical exploration of some of life’s most important ideas, ideas about reality, God, the soul, knowledge and truth, goodness, and much, much more. Make no mistake about it. Ideas matter. The ideas one really believes largely determine the kind of person one becomes. Everyone has a philosophy of life. That is not optional. What is optional and, thus, of extreme importance is the adequacy of one’s philosophy of life. Are one’s views rational or irrational, true or false, carefully formed and precise or conveniently formed and fuzzy? Are they conducive to human flourishing or do they cater to one’s fallen nature? Are they honoring or dishonoring to the triune God? The discipline of philosophy can be of great help in aiding someone in the search for an increasingly rich and robust philosophy of life.

For centuries, people have recognized the importance of philosophy. In particular, throughout the history of Christianity, philosophy has played an important role in the life of the church and the spread and defense of the gospel of Christ. The great theologian Augustine (354-430) summarized the views of many early church fathers when he said, “We must show our Scriptures not to be in conflict with whatever [our critics] can demonstrate about the nature of things from reliable sources.”1 Philosophy was the main tool Augustine used in this task. In 1756, John Wesley delivered an address to a group of men preparing for ministry. He exhorted them to acquire skills which today are often neglected in seminary education but which seminaries would do well to reinstate. And much of what he said is sound advice for all Christians. For Wesley, among the factors crucial for the service of Christ was a tolerable mastery of logic and philosophy in general.

Unfortunately, today things are different. Theologian R. C. Sproul has called this the most anti-intellectual period in the history of the church, and former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Christian statesman Charles Malik warns that the greatest danger facing modern evangelicalism is a lack of cultivation of the mind, especially as it relates to philosophy.

This trend within the church is coupled with two unfortunate features of Western culture: the rampant pragmatism in society with the concomitant devaluation of the humanities in university life and the nonexistence of philosophy in our precollege educational curricula. The result is that philosophy departments are endangered species in Christian colleges and seminaries, and serious philosophical reflection is virtually absent from most church fellowships. This, in turn, has contributed to intellectual shallowness and a lack of cultural discernment in the body of Christ.

But is philosophy really that important for the life, health and witness of the church? Are God’s people not warned in Scripture itself to avoid philosophy and worldly wisdom? And just what is philosophy, anyway? How does it help believers form an integrated Christian worldview? How does philosophy relate to other disciplines taught at the university?

2 THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY

Scholars generally are agreed that there is no airtight definition that expresses a

set of necessary and sufficient conditions for classifying some activity as philosophical, conditions which all and only philosophy satisfies. But this should not be troubling. In general, one does not need a definition of something before one can know features of the thing in question and recognize examples of it. One can recognize examples of historical study, love, a person, art, matter, sport and a host of other things without possessing an airtight definition. Nevertheless, definitions are useful, and a reasonably adequate definition of philosophy can be provided.

How might someone go about formulating such a definition? Three ways suggest themselves. First one could focus on the etymology of the word philosophy. The word comes from two Greek words philein, “to love,” and sophia, “wisdom.” Thus a philosopher is a lover of wisdom. Socrates held that the unexamined life is not worth living, and the ancient Greek philosophers sought wisdom regarding truth, knowledge, beauty and goodness. In this sense, then, philosophy is the attempt to think hard about life, the world as a whole and the things that matter most in order to secure knowledge and wisdom about these matters. Accordingly, philosophy may be defined as the attempt to think rationally and critically about life’s most important questions in order to obtain knowledge and wisdom about them. Philosophy can help someone form a rationally justified, true worldview, that is, an ordered set of propositions that one believes, especially propositions about life’s most important questions.

Second, our understanding of philosophy will be enhanced if we observe that philosophy often functions as a second-order discipline. For example, biology is a first-order discipline that studies living organisms, but philosophy is a second-order discipline that studies biology. In general, it is possible have a philosophy of x, where x can be any discipline whatever; for example, law, mathematics, education, science, government, medicine, history or literature. When philosophers examine another discipline to formulate a philosophy of that field, they ask normative questions about that discipline (e.g., questions about what one ought and ought not believe in that discipline and why), analyze and criticize the assumptions underlying it, clarify the concepts within it and integrate that discipline with other fields.