What is Philosophy?

The word 'philosophy' comes from the Greek word φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally translates as "love of wisdom."  Philosophers try to think hard and use rational argumentation to answer what we might call "big and basic" questions about the world.  We can delineate the major sub-fields of philosophy by looking at what "big and basic" question(s) they ask.  For example:

Ethics: "What is good, right, or just?"
Epistemology: "What is the nature of belief, and what makes belief into knowledge?"
Logic: "How can we distinguish good reasoning from bad?"
Metaphysics: "What sorts of things exist, and what do all existing things have in common?"
Philosophy of Religion: "Does God exist?"

Most philosophers accept (at least as a working hypothesis) that

(a) each of these questions have right answers (and wrong answers, of course!), and that
(b) if we try hard enough and are careful enough, we have some hope of discovering those right answers

And that basically sums up philosophy courses here at Virginia Union.  In each course we take one or more of these "big and basic" questions and try our best to answer them.  So if you find any of these questions intriguing, and would like to join in the attempt to answer them, then check out philosophy.