In the days when Pythagoras coined its name, Philosophy was much more than the narrow field of study that it is today. In its inception Philosophy was a holistic system of education designed to help the Philosopher achieve true, eternal happiness (1).

Philosophy has, through the passage of time, come to be defined as a type of fancy arguing, or, more formally stated, dialectic applied to topics. We often hear people say, "My philosophy is." and they will then go on to give an argument or opinion about some topic or other. For instance, you might hear someone talk about their philosophy about cars. They will then go on to explain how they feel cars should be built, or fixed, or purchased, or some other topic relevant to cars. In these cases the word philosophy is being used as a synonym for argument, or opinion. Webster's Dictionary does give the definition, "pursuit of wisdom," as a secondary meaning for philosophy, but it then goes on to limit the scope of this pursuit of wisdom to "speculative rather than observational means."

In today's academic environment, a sound argument is what the Philosopher strives for, and virtually nothing more. In Philosophy departments in universities, students are graded almost exclusively on the soundness of their arguments, or for their ability to critically analyze the soundness of someone else's argument. Judging the soundness of an argument is obviously useful, but it was never intended to be the whole of Philosophy. Since Philosophy is now seen as dialectic alone, many people believe that Philosophy has little or no practical value, and I have even heard Philosophy professors suggest that it is little more than a form of amusement.