Very briefly, philosophy might be regarded as a conceptual enquiry dealing with fundamental issues relating to life, knowledge and values. By conceptual enquiry we mean an enquiry that relies primarily on critical reasoning. This includes :

Analysing the meaning of concepts
Identifying logical connections between theories
Evaluating arguments and exposing fallacies
Here is a Chinese newspaper article from MingPao on how philosophy improves critical thinking.
Philosophy and other subjects
According to such a conception of philosophy, philosophy is distinctive in both its method and subject matter. Art or literature might also deal with fundamental issues in life, but the use of critical reasoning is not a necessary part of artistic expression. Critical reasoning of course plays an important role in science, but science is an empirical enquiry into the nature of the world, relying on observations and experiments.
In such respects philosophy is more like mathematics and......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: What Is Philosophy
Approximate Word Count: 611
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on What Is Philosophy, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!