Philosophy

(fe-los'o-fe.) [Gr. philosophia, from phi leo, I love, and sophia, wisdom.] The love and pursuit of knowledge or wisdom. In a general sense, the term includes observation and reflection on every subject; or an investigation of the causes of all phenomena, both of mind and of matter. The term philosopher originated with Pythagoras, who declined the title of the wise, which had been given to his predece ors, and contented himself with the name ofa "friend or lover of wisdom." The object of P. is the ascertainment of generalized truth. P., in general, was so imperfect in the earliest ages of antiquity, and even in the more polished times of Greece and Rome, that it appears, when looking down from the high pinnacle of modern improvements and of late discoveries, but little removed from solemn trifling and puerile affectation. Yet some of the ancients, it must be confe ed, approached so near to the truth, in matters of high importance, that we are led to wonder how they failed of making its discovery. In ethics and in politics they have left behind them some excellent works; but the solution of the phenomena of nature was reserved for a Bacon and a Newton. Their reasonings were hypothetical, for they never thought of arguing by induction-the only chain by which truth can be drawn from many of her deep rece es. The reader will find, under their proper heads, the several parts of P., natural and experimental, and the principal ancient and modern systems, separately noticed. [s. 705]