Philosophy

Computer science, cognitive science and artificial intelligence are modern areas of research that philosophy has played a role in developing. Games are often played with a handicap in which the sum of the individual players' handicaps are compared to each other, and the team with the worse handicap is given a few goals before the start of the game. What were once philosophical pursuits have evolved into the modern day fields of psychology, sociology, linguistics, and economics (among others). A game consisting of 6 chukkas is most common. Often, philosophy is seen as an investigation into an area not understood well enough to be its own branch of knowledge. Game is divided into periods, called chukkas, of 7 minutes, and depending on the rules of the particular tournament or league, a game may have 4, 6 or 8 chukkas. In general, the various "philosophies of," such as philosophy of law, can provide workers in their respective fields with a deeper understanding of the theoretical or conceptual underpinnings of their fields. The object of the game is to score the most goals by hitting the ball through the goal.

Even ontology, surely the most abstract and least practical-seeming branch of philosophy, has had important consequences for logic and computer science. There is a goal on either end of the field. Aesthetics can help to interpret discussions of art. The field is 300 yards long, and either 160 yards or 200 yards wide. Philosophy of science discusses the underpinnings of the scientific method. When playing outdoors each team has four players, while arena polo is restricted to three players per team. Other important applications can be found in epistemology, which might help one to regulate one's notions of what knowledge, evidence, and justified belief are. Polo is played by two teams of players mounted on horseback.

In the field of the philosophy of education, progressive education as championed by John Dewey has had a profound impact on educational practices in the United States in the twentieth century. In the United States and Canada, collegiate polo is arena polo; in the UK collegiate polo is both. The political philosophies of Confucius, Kautilya, Sun Tzu, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Niccolo Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Mahatma Gandhi, Robert Nozick, and John Rawls have shaped and been used to justify governments and their actions. The major differences between the outdoor and indoor games are speed (outdoor being faster), physicality/roughness (indoor/arena is more physical), ball size (indoor is larger), goal size (because the arena is smaller the goal is smaller), and some penalties. The most obvious applications are those in ethics – applied ethics in particular – and in political philosophy. There are many arena clubs in the United States, where real estate is at a premium, and most major polo clubs, including the Santa Barbara Polo & Raquet Club, have active arena programs. Though often seen as a wholly abstract field, philosophy is not without practical applications. The sport is played in a 300 ft by 150 ft enclosed arena, much like those used for other equestrian sports; the minimum size is 150 ft by 75ft.

The western philosophical tradition began with the Greeks, while that of Asia originated, largely, in China and the Indian subcontinent. Arena (or Indoor) Polo is an affordable option for many who wish to play the sport and the rules are similar. At least since the publication of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy the most prominent division of philosophy has been between the philosophies of the "West" and the "East". Bulahla, an updated urban equivalent, is rapidly expanding and varsity teams have been created at The University of Western Ontario, McMaster University and McGill University. Islamic civilization also produced many philosophical geniuses such as, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroës), and Al-Ghazali (see Islamic philosophy). Recently, in commonwealth countries such as Canada, a modern incarnation of polo has gained popularity. In Persia, Zarathustra's teachings which were a new basis for the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian philosophy appeared around 900 BC. Nevertheless, the popularity of polo has grown steadily since the 1980s, and its future appears to have been greatly strengthened by its return as a varsity sport at universities across the world.

In India, major philosophical texts include the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, from circa 500 BCE (see Hindu philosophy). On the other hand, many members of polo clubs, particularly social or non-playing members, are attracted to the sport precisely because of its aura of wealth and its remove from ordinary people. In China, the Tao Te Ching of Laozi and the Analects of Confucius both appeared around 600 BCE, about the same time as the Greek pre-Socratics were writing. On the one hand, many polo athletes genuinely desire to expand broad public participation in the sport, both as an end in itself and to increase the standard of play. Philosophical thinking also developed elsewhere, and can be seen in many ancient texts. The modern sport has had difficulty grappling with the traditional social and economic exclusivity associated with a game that is inevitably expensive when played at a serious level. Eastern philosophy follows the broad traditions that originated or were popular in India, Persia, the Middle East, and China. The sixteen-team league plays across the country.

The question of which specific languages can be considered essential to philosophizing is a theme in the works of many recent philosophers. is unique in possessing a professional women's polo league, the United States Women's Polo Federation, which was founded in 2000. Languages can either be a barrier or a vehicle for ideas. The U.S. On account of the widespread emphasis on western philosophy as a reference point, the study, preservation and dissemination of valuable but not widely known non-western philosophical works faces many obstacles. In the world of polo, Argentina's Heguy family, are to polo what the Barrymore family is to acting. Other philosophical traditions, such as African, are rarely considered by foreign academia. It is also the source of the Raza Polo Argentino, the only purpose-bred polo pony in general international demand.

The subject matter and dialogues of each can be studied using methods derived from the others, and there have been significant commonalities and exchanges between them. Argentina dominates the professional sport, its polo team has been the uninterrupted world champion since 1949 and is today the source of most of the world's 10 goal (i.e., top-rated) players. The differences between traditions are often based on their favored historical philosophers, or emphases on ideas, styles or language of writing. Polo is unique among team sports in that amateur players, often the team patrons, routinely play alongside the sport's top professionals. Russian, Jewish, Islamic and recently Latin American philosophical traditions have contributed to, or been derivative of western philosophy, yet retain a distinctive identity. Polo is, however, played professionally in only a few countries, notably Argentina, England, Pakistan,India, and the United States. Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophical traditions have influenced western philosophers. Polo is now an active sport in 77 countries, and although its tenure as an Olympic sport was limited to 1900–1939, in 1998 the International Olympic Committee recognised it as a sport with a bona fide international governing body, the Federation of International Polo.

Members of many societies have considered philosophical questions and built philosophic traditions based upon each other's works. Whitney and his teammates used the fast break, sending long passes downfield to riders who had broken away from the pack at a full gallop. But we are embedded in the world. The sport became popular amongst European nobility, but during the early part of the 20th century, under the leadership of Harry Payne Whitney, polo changed to become a high-speed sport in the United States, differing from the game in England, where it involved short passes to move the ball toward the opposition's goal. To have faith in the reality of the "external world", presupposes a subject which is worldless. The game's governing body in the United Kingdom is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which drew up the first set of formal British rules in 1874, many of which are still in existence. This is strikingly similar to themes found in 'Continental' writers such as Heidegger, who argues that the 'scandal of philosophy' is not that the proof of the existence of an external world has yet to be given, but that such proofs are expected and attempted again and again. The 10th Hussars at Aldershot, Hants, introduced polo to England, in 1869 after reading an account of the game in The Field magazine.

Such a mistake would make no sense – literally so, for if the question of whether the Eiffel Tower, London exists, were intelligible, we would have to admit the possibility that those names have no meaning, and thus that the question was not intelligible in the first place. As further proof, it is recorded during the House of Lords debate on Juvraj Tikendrajit's trial on 22nd June 1891, the Marquess of Ripon said about Manipur "it is a small State (Manipur), probably until these events took place very little known to your Lordships, unless, indeed, some of you may have heard of it as the birth place of the Game of Polo.". Thus the thought 'Socrates is wise' has Socrates himself as a component, and thus there can be no question of our being radically mistaken as to the nature or existence of an external world. According to historical accounts, one British government official stationed in Manipur (then a princely state) during the late 19th century wrote an account of the sport, and thus its popularity spread. This is that proper names ('Socrates', 'George Bush') refer directly to their bearers, and that their meaning is not mediated by any 'sense' or subjective meaning. The Guinness Book of Records in its 1991 edition (page 288) traces the origins of the game to Manipur, circa 3100 BC, where it was known as Sagol Kangjei. A similar idea (though developed from a somewhat different starting point) is the view known as externalism defended recently by philosophers such as John McDowell and Gareth Evans. Polo came to the west via Manipur, a northeastern state in India.

Yet this is an assumption shared by analytic philosophers. As the great Eastern empires collapsed, however, so disappeared the glittering court life of which polo was so important a part, and the game itself was preserved only in remote villages. Thus an important theme of phenomenology is an attack on the subject-object dualism of Cartesianism. Polo for non-Iranians was the nearest equivalent to a national sport in those times, from Japan to Egypt, from India to the Byzantine Empire. A fundamental assumption of this school is that mental phenomena have intentionality, they have objects, external to and independent of the mind itself. Their Queens played, as did the nobility and the mounted warriors. Continental philosophy, in the hands of the phenomenologists such as Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, took a different turn, in its preoccupation with consciousness. For more than 20 centuries polo remained a favourite of the rulers of Asia, who played the game or were its patrons.

Russell's The Philosophy of Logical Atomism is an outline of such a project, Wittgenstein's Tractatus is a more detailed attempt, although famously obscure and aphoristic. The polo stick appears on Chinese royal coats of arms and the game was part of the court life in the golden age of Chinese classical culture under Minghuang, the Radiant Emperor, who as an enthusiastic patron of equestrian activities. Some philosophers (beginning with Frege and Bertrand Russell), have argued that first order logic shows us the true logical form of ordinary language sentences. The Chinese most probably learned the game from the Iranian nobles who sought refuge in Chinese courts after the invasion of the Iranian Empire by the Arabs, or possibly by some Indian tribes who were taught by the Iranians. The difficulty, as yet unresolved, is to determine what the correct logical form must be. Polo was also popular among other nations, including China, where it was the royal pastime for many centuries. According to analytic philosophers, the true meaning of ordinary language sentences is, somewhat misleadingly, concealed by their grammatical form, and we must translate them into their true form (known as logical form) in order to clarify them. Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Sâpour-II of Sasanian dynasty of the 4th Century AD, who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old.

'baldness', 'existence') there corresponds something in reality. The poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyâvash's skills on the polo field. We imagine that to every word (e.g. Some believe that the Chinese (the Mongols) were the first to try their hands at the game, but in the earliest account, Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Siyâvash, a legendary Persian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire. What underlies the analytic tradition is the view (originally defended by Ockham) that philosophical error arises from misunderstandings generated by language. Ferdowsi, the most famous of Iranian poet-historian, gives a number of later accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnameh (the Epic of Kings). Both traditions appear radically different, yet they have a common root, namely a rejection of the Cartesian and empiricist tradition that dominated philosophy since the early modern period, and particularly of the psychologism that pervaded the logic and method of Idealist philosophy. The first recorded polo match occurred in roughly 600 BCE between the Turkomans and Persian, with victory going to the Turkomans.

The modern period in philosophy, beginning in the late nineteenth century to the 1950's, was marked by a developing schism in philosophy between 'Continental' tradition, which is mainly Franco-German, and the English and American 'Analytic' tradition. Certainly it is Persian literature and art that give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. One of the most influential was Edmund Husserl, who founded the philosophical mode known as phenomenology. However, many scholars believe that polo originated among the Iranian tribes [1] sometime before Darius the Great (521–485 BCE) and his cavalry forged the Second Iranian Empire, the Achaemenid dynasty. By the late 19th Century, however, several important philosophers argued against the Kantians' skeptical attitude. No one knows where or when stick first met ball after the horse was domesticated by the ancient Iranian (Aryan) tribes of Central Asia before their migration to Iranian plateau; but it seems likely that as the use of light cavalry spread throughout Iranian plateau, Asia Minor, China and the Indian subcontinent, so did this rugged game on horseback. Immanuel Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting views and establish a new groundwork for studying metaphysics rooted in the analysis of the conditions for the possibility of knowledge. The precise origin of polo is obscure and undocumented and there is ample evidence of the game's place in the history of Asia.

Hume was heavily influenced by empiricists John Locke, George Berkeley, Isaac Newton, and Samuel Clarke. Polo is arguably one of the most complex of games in the world. The British Empiricists, John Locke and the Anglo-Irish George Berkeley and David Hume, developed a form of Scepticism and naturalism on roughly scientific principles. In one ancient sentence it epitomises the feelings of many polo players today. In his Meditations, he systematically destroys all the foundations of knowledge except one (I am thinking, therefore I am), and then uses this single indubitable fact to rebuild a system of knowledge. This verse is inscribed on a stone tablet next to a polo ground in Gilgit, north of Kashmir, near the fabled silk route from China to the West. Descartes, who is often called the father of modern philosophy, proposed that philosophy should begin with a radical skepticism about the possibility of obtaining reliable knowledge. .

His synthesis of Aristotelian metaphysics and practical reasoning with Christian teaching became characteristic of medieval philosophy. The main difference is that the players play on horseback. One of the greatest synthesizers of Christian and Aristotelian thought was Thomas Aquinas. In this it is similar to many team sports such as football and field hockey. Plato defined the issues with which philosophy still wrestles. Polo features successive periods called "chukkas," and riders score by driving a ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. While Socrates wrote nothing, his influence survives through that of his pupil. Each team has three (enclosed arena) or four (fullsized grass field) players.

Socrates and his pupil Plato revolutionized philosophy. Polo (also known as Cho-gan) is a team game played on a field with one goal for each team. Important pre-Socratic philosophers include Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Parmenides, and Heraclitus. Segway polo is a recently created polo game played on Segway HT scooters. Ancient Greek philosophy is typically divided into the pre-Socratic Period, the philosophy of Plato, and the philosophy of Aristotle. Cycle polo is similar to polo, but played using bicycles. Étienne Gilson, in his book The Unity of Philosophic Experience, attempts to show important connections between the ideas of the medieval period and their development in the modern period; this is contrary to traditional interpretations of modern philosophy as a new era unconcerned with the past. Elephant polo is a polo game played by people riding elephants.

There is also now focus being put on the post-modern period, especially existentialism. Canoe polo is a polo game involving people in a canoe instead of on horseback. Traditionally, the history of western philosophy is divided into three areas: Ancient Greek, Medieval, and Modern. Pato was played in Argentina for centuries, and may be the reason Argentines excel at polo. The Greeks, through the influence of Socrates and his method, developed a tradition of analysis that divided a subject into its components to understand it better. Polocrosse is another game played on horseback, a cross between polo and lacrosse. Aristotle, who was the first to use this classification (as he believed that to call himself "sophos" or wise was immodest), also considered politics (which he saw as part of ethics), modern-day physics, geology, biology, meteorology, and astronomy as branches of philosophical investigation. Kokpar, is a Kazakh game similar to Buzkashi.

These five broad types of question are not the only subjects of philosophical inquiry, and there are many overlaps between the categories which are subsumed within the discipline under the four major headings of Logic, Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology. The national game of Afghanistan and a likely precursor of polo. Aesthetics is often considered as a fifth branch. Buzkashi involves two teams of horsemen, a dead goat and few rules. The modern classification, which originates with Christian Wolff, is into four main branches: logic, metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. It is only used during the 2nd week of July for a traditional tournament between teams from Chitral and Gilgit. Logic he regarded as theoretical, but not as a science in its own right, since it is a necessary preliminary to all knowledge. The highest polo ground in the world is on the Shandur Pass at 3,700 meters (12,000 ft).

Aristotle regarded Ethics not as part of theoretical philosophy at all, but as a practical discipline. The oldest polo club in the world still in existence is the Calcutta Polo Club (1862). The Aristotelian division was as follows:. The oldest royal polo square is the 16th century Maidan-Shah in Isfahan, Iran (Post revolutionary name is: Naghsh-i Jahan Square). There is no universal agreement about which subjects are the main branches of philosophy. John-Paul Clarkin. Philosophy, in this respect, may involve thinking about thinking. Paul Clarkin.

Rather than merely using the concepts that are usually employed in everyday life in thinking about the world, philosophy also makes those concepts themselves the object of study. Luke Tomlinson. Indeed, the unifying goal behind philosophical inquiry may simply be the process of thinking through interesting questions. Henry Brett. Others say that, at most, the goal of philosophy is to make explicit, or to clarify, the nature and significance of ordinary and scientific beliefs. Harry Payne Whitney. Those attracted to the 'big questions' say the point of philosophy is to discover the absolutely fundamental reasons behind everything, or to unify and transcend the insights given by science and religion. Victor-Mansour Semeika.

Philosophers disagree on the goal of philosophical enquiry. Porfirio Rubirosa. For example: "What is the meaning of life? How did the world begin? Do I have a soul? Will my soul survive my death? What really exists? Could nothing have ever existed?". Tommy Hitchcock. Philosophy generally concerns itself with what are sometimes called 'the big questions'. Ignacio "Nachi" Heguy. Quite the opposite: science in general used to be known as "natural philosophy". Heguy.

However, this was not the attitude taken by ancient Hellenistic philosophers, who saw any intellectual investigation as philosophy. Horacio A. These philosophers may believe that philosophy does not employ the methods of empirical science, and its questions cannot be answered by observation or experiment, although observation and experiment may prompt those questions. Alberto Pedro Heguy, Sr. Some philosophers believe that philosophy is not experimental. Adolfo Cambiaso. The role of empirical experimentation in philosophy is questionable.

Rather, they are encouraged to provide good reasons for any conclusions they come to. Philosophy students are taught not to take anything on trust, "particularly if it seems obvious and undeniable" (Hodges). Philosophers try wherever possible to examine and criticise beliefs that are commonly taken for granted. Philosophy has a critical or skeptical nature.

There is some broad agreement that philosophy is characterised by a certain method, subject matter, and objectives. . Informally, a "philosophy" may refer to a general world view or to any specific ethic, belief, ritual, doctrine, or claim which is characterised in terms of abstraction and self-reflection. Philosophical literature is characterized by its use of reasoning and argument in order to come to cogent conclusions.

In the modern context, it is used both formally and informally to refer to debates concerning knowledge, reason, logic, and belief in their most fundamental and abstract forms. The term philosophy comes from the ancient Greek word "Φιλοσοφία" (philo-sophia), which means "love of wisdom". Aesthetics: What is it to be beautiful? How do beautiful things differ from the everyday? What is Art? Does true beauty exist?. Metaphysics: What is reality, and what exists? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the nature of thought and thinking? What is it to be a person?.

Ethics: Is there a difference between morally right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right and which wrong? Are values absolute, or relative? In general or particular terms, how should I live? How is right and wrong defined? Is there an ultimate "ought"? Is there a normative value or objective that supersedes all others? Are values 'in' the world like tables and chairs and if not how should we understand their ontological status?. Epistemology: Is knowledge possible? How do we know what we know? How do we take what is "known" to extrapolate what is "unknown"?. Logic: What is truth? How or why do we identify a statement as true or false? And, how do we reason?. This is a much wider and more 'philosophical' subject than the modern subject of the same name, encompassing the philosophy of perception, the theory of knowledge, the nature of the soul (now similar to what is called 'philosophy of mind').

Psychology. This includes the nature of material substance, of quality and quantity, of space, causation and change. Cosmology. The science of what ultimately exists, now sometimes called Ontology.

Metaphysics.