Western Philosophy
European philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies.
Historically, the term was recently invented to refer to the philosophical thinking of Western civilization, beginning with Greek philosophy in ancient Greece, and eventually covering a large area of the globe. The word philosophy itself originated in ancient Greece: philosophia (φιλοσοφία), literally, "the love of wisdom" (φιλεῖν — philein "to love" and σοφία - sophia "wisdom", in the sense of knowledge).
Read more about Western Philosophy: Origins, Western Philosophical Subdisciplines, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or philosophy:
“It is said that some Western steamers can run on a heavy dew, whence we can imagine what a canoe may do.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My position is a naturalistic one; I see philosophy not as an a priori propaedeutic or groundwork for science, but as continuous with science. I see philosophy and science as in the same boat—a boat which, to revert to Neurath’s figure as I so often do, we can rebuild only at sea while staying afloat in it. There is no external vantage point, no first philosophy.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)