Raphael: School of Athens
Plato (center left) and Aristotle surrounded by philosophers, detail from School of Athens, fresco by Raphael, 1508–11; in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican.
philosophy
philosophy, (from Greek, by way of Latin, philosophia, “love of wisdom”) the rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and experience. Philosophical inquiry is a central element in the intellectual history of many civilizations. Conventional accounts of historical and existing philosophical systems generally distinguish between Western philosophy—encompassing the philosophical problems, methodologies, and theories originating in Europe and developed there and in the Americas—and Eastern (or...
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