\Phi*los"o*phy\, n.; pl. {Philosophies}. [OE.
philosophie, F. philosophie, L. philosophia, from Gr. ?. See
{Philosopher}.]
1. Literally, the love of, including the search after,
   wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as
   explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons,
   powers and laws.
Note: When applied to any particular department of knowledge,
      philosophy denotes the general laws or principles under
      which all the subordinate phenomena or facts relating
      to that subject are comprehended. Thus philosophy, when
      applied to God and the divine government, is called
      theology; when applied to material objects, it is
      called physics; when it treats of man, it is called
      anthropology and psychology, with which are connected
      logic and ethics; when it treats of the necessary
      conceptions and relations by which philosophy is
      possible, it is called metaphysics.
Note: ``Philosophy has been defined: tionscience of things
      divine and human, and the causes in which they are
      contained; -- the science of effects by their causes;
      -- the science of sufficient reasons; -- the science of
      things possible, inasmuch as they are possible; -- the
      science of things evidently deduced from first
      principles; -- the science of truths sensible and
      abstract; -- the application of reason to its
      legitimate objects; -- the science of the relations of
      all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason; --
      the science of the original form of the ego, or mental
      self; -- the science of science; -- the science of the
      absolute; -- the scienceof the absolute indifference of
      the ideal and real.'' --Sir W. Hamilton.
2. A particular philosophical system or theory; the
   hypothesis by which particular phenomena are explained.
         [Books] of Aristotle and his philosophie. --Chaucer.
         We shall in vain interpret their words by the
         notions of our philosophy and the doctrines in our
         school.                               --Locke.
3. Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment;
   equanimity; fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune
   with philosophy.
         Then had he spent all his philosophy. --Chaucer.
4. Reasoning; argumentation.
         Of good and evil much they argued then, . . . Vain
         wisdom all, and false philosophy.     --Milton.
5. The course of sciences read in the schools. --Johnson.
6. A treatise on philosophy.
{Philosophy of the Academy}, that of Plato, who taught his
   disciples in a grove in Athens called the Academy.
{Philosophy of the Garden}, that of Epicurus, who taught in a
   garden in Athens.
{Philosophy of the Lyceum}, that of Aristotle, the founder of
   the Peripatetic school, who delivered his lectures in the
   Lyceum at Athens.
{Philosophy of the Porch}, that of Zeno and the Stoics; -- so
   called because Zeno of Citium and his successors taught in
   the porch of the Poicile, a great hall in Athens.