Philosophy, Theory, and Ideology : Comparison and Contrasts Essay

I. Definition of Philosophy, Ideology and Theory The words Philosophy, Theology and Ideology are linked with each other. In order to discuss and compare each, definitions of the words are important. Philosophy is a greek word that came from the words â€Å"philo† and â€Å"sophia†. â€Å"Philo† means love and sophia means wisdom. Taking these two words literally, the word philosophy can be defined as the â€Å"love of wisdom† (theophil-bcantens.barry.edu, 2007). An article from theophil-bcantens.barry.edu (2007) had further explained that philosophy is a study of the ultimate. This definition was taken from what the philosophers had said about philosophy and the concepts that have been studied in philosophy. Ideology as defined in the dictionary, according to Rolf Schwarz, â€Å"is a belief or a set of beliefs, especially the political beliefs on which people, parties, or countries base their actions.† On the other hand, Theory is defined by Curran and Takata (2007) as a systematic way of thought about a subject. II. Comparison of Philosophy, Ideology and Theory Based on the three meanings, differences can now be seen from the three words. Philosophy is seen as a discipline like a branch of science or a branch of education. It is a subject that has theories and ideologies on its own. On the other hand, Ideology is a belief, meaning a person or a group of person could belief on that particular idea or not. Ideology pertains to any belief, as long as there is a person that believe in an idea then that can be pertained as the ideology of that particular idea. A theory is a way of thinking that explains something logically. A theory is usually a way to help clarify the things that are happening around us. As the author had stated, Philosophy is a study of the ultimate. Ideologies are sometimes formed based on Philosophy. Most of the topic in Philosophy is quite complicated and almost all issues are still under debate. According to Aristotle in Metaphysics, â€Å"All men naturally have an impulse to get knowledge.†, because there are many things in the world that are yet to be clarified people tend to study why this is so. Philosophers tried to explain things and made some theories in philosophy. An example of which is Mentalism. This is considered as a philosophical theory wherein â€Å"the mind is the true reality and objects exists only as aspects of the mind’s awareness† (the freedictionary.com, 2007). However, others based their beliefs on Philosophy. Example is the Aetheist. The ideology of the Aetheist is that â€Å"God does not exist†. That is what they believe, however it is not yet proven still. III. Conclusion As a conclusion, theory, ideology and philosophy differ in form. Philosophy is a discipline, Ideology is a belief and Theory is a way of thinking. These words are concerned with how the people think based on their everyday lives. People are curious about what is happening in their environment and because of this, people formulated several questions about the existence of something or about the meaning of something. The questioning is then perceived as a philosophy if people start to study and try to discover the answer to the questions that are still yet to be found. Philosophical theories can become ideologies depending on the one who perceives it. On the other hand, an Ideology cannot be accounted as a theory because it is based on the belief of people. The belief could either be logical or not.