Philosopher

A philosopher (Greek φιλόσοφος philósophos " friend of wisdom " ) or in spirit thinker is a person who seeks to find answers to basic questions about the world and about the relationship of man to his environment. For philosophy, the questions are about the being, how and in what manner of man the world recognizes, for the meaning of life or thereafter, as the man acts morally good. Plato characterizes the philosopher in his Symposium as someone who loves and seeks the truth, beauty and goodness.

Definition

The question of who now unless a philosopher, can be answered from different points. Be denied that the term " philosopher " for eminent thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle and Kant to note here is that the subject matter of philosophy is controversial and has been altered in the history of philosophy.

Those who are professionally engaged in the academic discipline of philosophy, are now generally referred to as a philosopher. In some cases, this would not itself be regarded as such. Prominent examples of this are Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, who identified themselves only as a political theorist, respectively, as a critic, or Jürgen Habermas, who sees his main work as more sociological than philosophical. The " philosopher in spite of himself " Karl Popper distanced himself several times by a " professional philosophy ", whose representatives he described as " professional philosophers ". As with politicians and political scientists can also be distinguished between philosophers and philosophy scholars. While operating a policy or philosophy practical, investigate and systematize the other based on a corresponding study the work of the " practitioners ".

Therefore, there were also examples of philosophers who are not involved as a philosopher in academic contexts. Historically known examples are Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus.