Collins English-English Dictionary

philosophy [fɪ'lɒsəfɪ]

1. 1. n the academic discipline concerned with making explicit the nature and significance of ordinary and scientific beliefs and investigating the intelligibility of concepts by means of rational argument concerning their presuppositions, implications, and interrelationships; in particular, the rational investigation of the nature and structure of reality (metaphysics), the resources and limits of knowledge (epistemology), the principles and import of moral judgment (ethics), and the relationship between language and reality (semantics)

2. 2. n the particular doctrines relating to these issues of some specific individual or school

   the philosophy of Descartes

3. 3. n the critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a discipline

   the philosophy of law

4. 4. n [archaic or literary] the investigation of natural phenomena, esp alchemy, astrology, and astronomy

5. 5. n any system of belief, values, or tenets

6. 6. n a personal outlook or viewpoint

7. 7. n serenity of temper

8. 8. n [Etymology] C13: from Old French filosofie, from Latin philosophia, from Greek, from philosophos lover of wisdom