Metaphilosophy

Metaphilosophy, also called the philosophy of philosophy, is the study of what philosophy really is. It looks at philosophy's goals, topics, and methods for finding answers. While philosophy asks big questions about life, truth, and knowledge, metaphilosophy asks what philosophy is and how it works.

Metaphilosophy tries to understand the limits of philosophy and the methods it uses. Some people think it is a step before doing philosophy, while others see it as a natural part of philosophy.

Interest in metaphilosophy grew so much that a journal named Metaphilosophy began in January 1970. Many areas of philosophy, like beauty, knowledge, and ethics, have their own versions of metaphilosophy, such as meta-aesthetics, meta-epistemology, meta-ethics, and metametaphysics.

Even though the term "metaphilosophy" became popular in the 20th century, thinking about these ideas started long ago, including in the works of Ancient Greeks and Nyaya from Ancient India.

Relationship to philosophy

Some people think metaphilosophy is a different subject from philosophy. Others do not agree. Timothy Williamson says that thinking about philosophy is just a part of doing philosophy. Ludwig Wittgenstein said there is no such thing as a "second-level" philosophy.

Many philosophers wonder how helpful it is to study what philosophy is. Gilbert Ryle said that thinking too much about methods can take us away from using those methods.

Terminology

The words metaphilosophy and philosophy of philosophy can mean different things. Sometimes they are used to mean the same thing, and sometimes they are seen as different ideas.

Morris Lazerowitz says he first used the word 'metaphilosophy' around 1940 and wrote it down in 1942. He said metaphilosophy is "the investigation of the nature of philosophy". The word comes from the Greek word meta meaning "after", "beyond", or "with", and philosophía meaning "love of wisdom".

Paul Moser uses the term 'metaphilosophy' to mean a "second-order" or more basic kind of work than philosophy itself.

Some philosophers think the prefix meta simply means "about...", not that it refers to a "second-order" form of philosophy. This includes Rescher and Double. Others, like Williamson, prefer the term 'philosophy of philosophy' instead of 'metaphilosophy' because it does not suggest looking down on philosophy.

In the analytic tradition, the term "metaphilosophy" is mostly used for discussing and studying past works, rather than creating new answers to philosophical problems.

Writings

Ludwig Wittgenstein talked about puzzles in philosophy and how we understand it. He thought mistakes happen when we get confused about what philosophy really is.

C. D. Broad wrote about two kinds of philosophy in 1923. Curt Ducasse studied different ideas about philosophy and said it has its own special subject: appraisals. His idea was one of the first to be called 'metaphilosophy'.

Henri Lefebvre wrote about philosophy in 1965 from a special viewpoint. Paul Moser says that metaphilosophy looks at what makes a claim truly philosophical. He thinks studying ethics, called meta-ethics, and studying how we know things, called meta-epistemology, are both parts of metaphilosophy.

Topics

Many parts of philosophy have their own special questions about what philosophy means. But some big questions in metaphilosophy are important for all kinds of philosophy.

Aims

Some thinkers believe philosophy should help us live better lives by showing who we are and how we fit into the world. Others see philosophy as a careful, logical study meant to understand ideas for their own sake. Some think philosophy’s goal is to find the deepest reasons behind everything, explain our beliefs, or bring together ideas from science and religion. Others say philosophy is complicated because it has many different sides.

Boundaries

Main article: Definitions of philosophy

It’s hard to define exactly what philosophy is. One writer said it’s “notoriously difficult” to describe. Philosophy deals with big, important ideas, but it’s not always easy to say where it ends and other subjects begin.

Some wonder if philosophy is about studying ideas (like thinking about thinking), while others think it’s more about using those ideas. Some say philosophy is different from science because it can’t be tested by experiments, while others think philosophy should work closely with science. There are also questions about how philosophy relates to religion. Some thinkers long ago thought philosophy helped support religious ideas, while others said philosophy should rely only on reason, not faith.

Methods

Main article: Philosophical method

How do we study philosophy? There isn’t just one way. Some thinkers split philosophy into two types: one that carefully checks everyday ideas and another that tries to understand all of life.

Recently, some have questioned using personal feelings to answer philosophical questions. Others try experiments, like surveys, to help understand these big questions. But not everyone agrees on what these experiments can achieve. Some believe that understanding how our minds work can help us answer philosophical questions, while others think we should stick to thinking through ideas carefully.

Progress

One big question in metaphilosophy is whether philosophy makes progress. Some thinkers wonder if philosophy can even improve over time.

One philosopher split the question into three parts: whether there is progress in philosophy, whether it’s as much progress as in science, and why there might not be more progress. Another thinker compared philosophy to scratching an itch—saying it might not always show clear progress. Some believe philosophy is better at showing what’s wrong than what’s right. Others have studied how certain philosophers made big steps forward, suggesting future thinkers can learn from these examples.