To question all things
Philosophy questions everything, even those which are of theological or revelatory or sacred nature. As such philosophy may be considered offensive towards religion, but I do not believe such to be the case. Philosophy asks questions which at first glance seem damning towards religion, but that is because philosophy demands clarity in all aspects of knowledge. It demands the clarity of truth which religion often lacks. Philosophy stands as the ultimate check and balance against all dogma, be it religious or secular dogma, which includes scientific truths.
To question everything is to question reality as a whole and reality as the collection of its individual parts, and eventually to question God. However, that is where philosophy must be careful, its role is to question and doubt, but not outright reject at the first glance. Therefore the best way to obtain the truth out of the mess of all the world is to engage in a dialogue. Where philosophy questions the subject on the standards of philosophical truth until a satisfactory or any answer is obtained. At which point the answers and thoughts are scrutinized once more to the point of demonstration, that is when the truth reveals itself with its clarifying light.
Questions from Science
Science is often heralded as the great answer to all of humanity's questions, yet this might not be further than the truth. However, I am not a scientist at all so I cannot comment on this.
Nothing is Given, Set Aside Assumptions
This is one of my dreams in my amateur philosophical journey, to destroy all assumptions, but that is impossible. There is this thing which I call axiomatic assumptions which as the name suggests, are a group of assumptions inherent within our own minds, either innate or planted early on by the environment, which serves as basic axioms towards what we are doing and how we understand things. For this reason I have long abandoned the attempt to destroy assumptions, it is better to go straight to the assumptions, expose them, and evaluate them by their own standards.
Study of Questions
This is probably based on the observation that philosophy has never reached a satisfying answer, man can never reach its desired truth, even when God is the one offering it. As such philosophy can only waddle around in the mud of questions, and never achieve the glorious light of truth, which is only provided by God.
Division of Philosophy
The division of philosophy follows simply the flow of human life. In order to succeed in life, one must understand life (metaphysics), understand how to understand (epistemology) and understand what is success (ethics).
Philosophy is Everywhere
This is true, because we always make decisions and at every decision making, we are forced to conduct practical philosophy. That is to make a decision based on what we value, applying theoretical values into the real world. That is practical philosophy.
Understanding and Evaluating
If you wish to evaluate a particular idea, then you must understand that idea thoroughly first, without having to agree to it. If you do not understand the idea properly, you may end up attacking a straw man, that is a false image of the idea.
Philosophical Success
I would argue that yes, philosophical success is foremost knowing how to think, but knowing how to think entails knowing the right thoughts derived from the process of thinking. So to succeed in philosophy is to know about the ideas and how to think about those ideas, until you reach the glorious light of the truth.
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