What exactly is philosophy?

Philosophy is the love of wisdom

philosophy is the science of all sciences,
the love of wisdom and knowledge,
where pot-heads and people with huge egos go to hear themselves talk and
the best thing to take pre-pre-law.

i love it, it is the best and most useful discipline at university. if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

she teaches you how to think. and she won't love you back unless you write and listen, she has no time for bullshit or people just talk to make noise.

only through her are the methods to answers, and she tells the truth in a way that science just cant.

eventually science decays into poetry, philosophy admits this to us from the onset, but she still invites us to preforms a rigorous analysis and considers it useful,

she gives a picture of the world that you can live with.

and she is brave enough to try to find answers to the real questions, the ones that matter:
is it okay for me to do this?
does my life have meaning?
what is a law?
how about time?
being?
space?
love?

these are the things that are real in our lives; bridges airplanes and microchips are fan-tastic, they're great and i'm happy to make ample use of them,

but, philosophy was there before these things were dreamed of, she is the spark and the fuel, intricate in their making

and she will beat in our hearts long, long after these things are obsolete.

My Logic & Semantics professor broke down the word Philosophy like this:

Philo = Latin root for "Love of"

Sophia (sophy) = Latine root for "knowledge"

Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.

some over complicate it but I think that philosophy is how we intelegent beings have come to describe our world as we individualy see it. I cant understand most of the "greatest" philosophers but my own go over pretty well.

From the Greek: philo= love, sophia= knowledge. It is, in its most general form, the pursuit of knowledge or truth. Even the physical sciences at one time were classified as "natural philosophy". +3

Put most simply, it is the study of knowledge. It can cover a wide variety of branches within philosophy, for instance Metaphysics (study of existance), Ethics, Politics, Aesthetics (philosophy of art).

For some, an aphrodesiac!
;-)

philosophy is the prediction of future depends of one knowledge, experience and attitude.basically its theoretical base.

Philosophy is an exposition of the results of analysis on matters relating to the usefulness or otherwise of human existence on this planet Earth for the benefit all those who are amenable to reason with the intention of enriching the values of life according to parameters prescribed by a thinking person who specializes in finding solutions to the vexing problems that the human race faces and is willing to give away the results of his analysis for free to anyone who is willing to pay the price of the book that he writes and manages to get published.
Am I clear. This is how clear most philosophers get.

Though no single definition of philosophy is uncontroversial, and the field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era, it is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason, and there is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to prove.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy

Although most religions and spiritual beliefs are clearly
distinct from science on both a philosophical and methodological
level, the two are not generally considered to be mutually
exclusive. A majority of humans hold a mix of both scientific and
religious views. The distinction between philosophy and religion,
on the other hand, is at times less clear.

hilosophy with a "p" in front

a 3lb brain (piece of meat) trying to figure out things that are much bigger and complex than itself.

the love of wisdom and how people think.

Philosophy is concentrated essence collected thoughts born out of life experience and wisdom ready to act as guideline for execution of any act no matter how mundane or significant by nature.

philosophy is an activity by which one uses deductive logic and reasoning in attempt of discovering components of reality and truth

Self inquiry

I've just answered a similar ? to this 2 secs ago. Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).