Philosophy is the noble art of thinking carefully, persistently, even obsessively, about the Big Questions of life—the meaning of life and with it the business of living, that is living well. It is also, as Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.) famously said, looking with wonder at ourselves and the world around us, being intrigued by both nature and the way we look and talk about nature, and the ways in which we think and talk about ourselves. But philosophy—and even the word philosophy —is shot through with contentiousness and is subject to endless debate. This was true in the days of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (teachers and students, respectively) and it is certainly true today. The word itself is a Greek coinage, supposedly by Pythagoras (c. 580–c. 500 b.c.e.), who when asked if he was wise gave the modest answer "no, but I am a lover of wisdom." Thus the words love (philein ) and wisdom (sophia ) were fused into "philosophy," the love of wisdom. But the true nature of philosophy is perhaps better captured by Socrates, who showed quite clearly that philosophy is essentially the love of argument. Or, as Bertrand Russell cynically noted, "philosophy is an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously"...
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Very good comment. Thank you. And I just want to add the word "parrhesia" - it's an ancient Greek word that means speaking the truth or telling everything that has to be said in the name of the truth. It have really philosophical meaning.
I would argue the love of argumentation is more of a Sophist ideal than a Socratic one. I think, if anything, (as Plato demonstrated in the dialogue THEAETETUS) Socrates was more interested in exposing what others didn't know (to get at what's true) or more specifically bring forth what others take for granted and falsely believe they know. I think the discussion in THEAETETUS 146c – 151d
of Socrates being a midwife is very telling in this sense:
"SOCRATES: My art of midwifery is in general like theirs; the only difference is that my patients are men, not women, and my concern is not with the body but with the soul that is in travail of birth. And the highest point of my art is the power to prove by every test whether the offspring of a young man's thought is a false phantom, or instinct with life and truth. I am so far like the midwife that I cannot myself give birth to wisdom, and the common reproach is true, that, though I question others, I can myself bring nothing to light because there is no wisdom in me."