A Website Dedicated to Philosophical Inquiry Concerning the
Promotion of Peace |PART I : WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? |Landrum Kelly,
Jr., Ph.D. Philosophy begins and ends with questions. It never
gives definitive or final answers to the questions that are of
the greatest importance. Philosophy does, however, allow one to
examine rational intellectual choices and assumptions, and it
allows one to see the logical implications of various (often
competing) assumptions, as well as the interrelationships
between and among those choices. That is, philosophy proceeds by
making certain assumptions and examining their possible
implications. Since the most interesting assumptions cannot be
verified with certainty, neither by reason nor by observation,
philosophy thus has inherent limitations. It can allow one to
examine the coherence of a set of beliefs, but it cannot prove
or disprove the truth value of the foundational assumptions upon
which belief systems rest. This in turn means that the final
conclusions cannot be evaluate