Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Philosophical |
PhilosophicalAdjective1. Of or relating to philosophy or philosophers; "philosophical writing"; "a considerable knowledge of philosophical terminology". 2. Characterized by the attitude of a philosopher; meeting trouble with level-headed detachment; "philosophical resignation"; "a philosophic attitude toward life". 3. Characteristic of or imbued with the attitude of a philosopher or based on philosophy; "that breadth of outlook that distinguishes the philosophic mind"; "their differences were philosophical". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "philosophical" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1379. (references) |
Synonym: PhilosophicalSynonym: philosophic (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: nonphilosophical (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Thought | Adjective: thinking; Verb: thoughtful, pensive, meditative, reflective, museful, wistful, contemplative, speculative, deliberative, studious, sedate, introspective, Platonic, philosophical. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | It raises all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of self, about the existence of the soul (Being John Malkovich; writing credit: Charlie Kaufman) Could you re-phrase that as a philosophical question (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Five Philosophical Fables (1970) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
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| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Page 11, beginning of Chapter 1 of: An historical and philosophical account of the barometer, or weather-glass.... by Edward Saul, published in 1735. Library Call Number QC876 .S38 1735. Credit: Treasures of the Library. |  | Plate IV - The first triangulation work of the United States Coast Survey. In: Papers on various subjects connected with the survey of the coast of the United States" by Ferdinand Hassler. Communicated March 3, 1820. Published in :Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 2, n. ser. 1825. Pp. 232-420. Library Call Number QB281.2 .H28 1825. Credit: Treasures of the Library. |
 | 4th Lecture, Philosophical remarks upon the Nature & effects of Amputation. / F. Jukes. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | William Henry, M.D., F.R.S. : Vice President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester &. &. / Painted by James Lonsdale. Engraved by Henry Cousins. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Philosophical Pathology / Spy [pseud.]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Architectural drawings for a library ("Building for the Library and Philosophical Apparatus of the Military Academy"), West Point, New York. North and south front elevations. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Aristotle | Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. |
F. E. Abbot | Agnosticism is the philosophical, ethical, and religious dry-rot of the modern world. |
Thomas Carlyle | There is often more spiritual force in a proverb than in whole philosophical systems. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | They wrote their philosophical nonsense beneath the French original. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | It was the lamp he wrote his philosophical dissertations by. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | I chiefly wanted to know to what cause in art or in nature it owed its several motions, whereof I will now give a philosophical account to the reader |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | There are the Records of the Philosophical Societies, and the public Eulogies of Great Men |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Iran | HRW reported that the Government closed philosophical and cultural monthly Kiyan in January. (references) |
Belgium | Laics serve as a seventh recognized "religious" group, and their organizing body, the Central Council of Non-Religious Philosophical Communities of Belgium, receives funds and benefits similar to those of the six recognized religions. (references) | |
Belgium | The Government also supports the freedom to participate in nonconfessional philosophical organizations (laics). (references) | |
Economic History | Slovenia | For all the apparent bitterness that divides left and right wings, there are few fundamental philosophical differences between them in the area of public policy. (references) |
Russia | His introduction of European customs generated nationalistic resentments in society and spawned the philosophical rivalry between "Westernizers" and nationalistic "Slavophiles" that remains a key dynamic of current Russian social and political thought. (references) | |
Denmark | The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75), the philosophical essays of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55), and the short stories of Karen Blixen (penname Isak Dinesen, 1885-1962) have earned international recognition, as have the symphonies of Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Danish applied art and industrial design have won awards for excellence. (references) | |
Human Rights | Morocco | The AMDH does not officially work with the Government, due to philosophical differences, but usually shares information with it. Founded in 1979 and 1988, respectively, the AMDH and OMDH have spent years addressing human rights abuses, and at times were subjected to harassment and restrictions by the Government. (references) |
Political Economy | Ireland | Labour's philosophical orientation is similar to that of mainstream Social Democratic parties in other European nations. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TIGHTS, n. An habiliment of the stage designed to reinforce the general acclamation of the press agent with a particular publicity. Public attention was once somewhat diverted from this garment to Miss Lillian Russell's refusal to wear it, and many were the conjectures as to her motive, the guess of Miss Pauline Hall showing a high order of ingenuity and sustained reflection. It was Miss Hall's belief that nature had not endowed Miss Russell with beautiful legs. This theory was impossible of acceptance by the male understanding, but the conception of a faulty female leg was of so prodigious originality as to rank among the most brilliant feats of philosophical speculation! It is strange that in all the controversy regarding Miss Russell's aversion to tights no one seems to have thought to ascribe it to what was known among the ancients as "modesty." The nature of that sentiment is now imperfectly understood, and possibly incapable of exposition with the vocabulary that remains to us. The study of lost arts has, however, been recently revived and some of the arts themselves recovered. This is an epoch of renaissances, and there is ground for hope that the primitive "blush" may be dragged from its hiding-place amongst the tombs of antiquity and hissed on to the stage. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Bill Maher | I mean, that's an issue that I have fought for very much for purely philosophical reasons. Btu I find it, as usual with this cause, very hard to get the people to organize in the way they should. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Philosophical" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.79% of the time. "Philosophical" is used about 1,313 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 97.79% | 1,284 | 6,150 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.21% | 29 | 64,444 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,313 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "philosophical": philosophical belief ♦ philosophical doctrine ♦ philosophical induction ♦ philosophical materialism ♦ philosophical philosophic ♦ philosophical theory. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "philosophical": non-philosophical, pseudo-philosophical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "philosophical"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | filozofik (philosophic). (various references) | |
Arabic | فلسفي, رابط الجأش (collected, composed, cool, cucumber, imperturbable, nonchalant, phlegmatical, possessed, self possessed). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | умерен (abstemious, abstinent, conservative, equable, frugal, gentle, medium, mezzo, mild, moderate, reasonable, restrained, slack, sober, sparing, temperate, tempered), спокоен (arcadian, calm, clear, collected, contented, cool, dreamy, easeful, easy, equable, equal, even tempered, even-minded, halcyon, immovable, impassive, imperturbable, leisurely, level, nerveless, peaceful, piping, placid, quiet, reposeful, restful, secure, sedate, self possessed, self-collected, settled, smooth, soft, staid, steady, steady-going, still, stirless, unalarmed, unbuttoned, unconcerned, undisturbed, uneventful, unflappable, unmolested, unruffled, untroubled), философски, примирен (acquiescent, resigned). (various references) | |
Chinese | 哲学 (Philosophic, Philosophies, philosophy). (various references) | |
Czech | filozofický (philosophic). (various references) | |
Danish | politiske, ideologiske eller religioese overbevisninger (philosophical or religious views), Politiske (philosophical or religious views), ideologiske eller religioese overbevisninger (philosophical or religious views, political), filosofiske eller religiøse udsendelser (religious or philosophical broadcasts), filosofisk logik (philosophical logic), filosofisk antropologi (philosophical anthropology). (various references) | |
Dutch | politieke, wijsgerige of godsdienstige opvattingen (philosophical or religious views), politieke (philosophical or religious views), wijsgerige of godsdienstige opvattingen (philosophical or religious views, political), wijsgerige logica (philosophical logic), wijsgerige antropologie (philosophical anthropology), levensbeschrouwelijke of godsdienstige uitzendingen (religious or philosophical broadcasts), levensbeschouwelijke overtuiging (philosophical conviction). (various references) | |
French | philosophique. (various references) | |
German | philosophischen. (various references) | |
Greek | φιλοσοφικόσ (philosophic), φιλοσοφικός. (various references) | |
Hungarian | filozófiai (philosophic), bölcseleti (philosophic), megadó, mérsékelt (temperate, restrained), mélyen szántó, mélyen járó, józan (sane, sober), filozófusi, filozófikus, bölcsészeti, bölcs nyugalmú. (various references) | |
Indonesian | filsafati, filosofis, falsafi. (various references) | |
Italian | filosofico (philosophic). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 哲学的 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | てつがくてき. (various references) | |
Korean | 철학 (Philosophies, philosophy). (various references) | |
Manx | fallsoonagh (philosopher, schoolman). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ilosophicalphay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | relativo à filosofia (philosophic), filosófico (philosophic), filósofo (philosopher), calmo (calm, peaceful, quiet, serene, tranquil). (various references) | |
Romanian | raţional (judicious, logical, lucid, philosophic, rational, rationalistic, rationally, reasonable, reasonably, sensible, sound, soundly), filozofic (philosophic, philosophically), înţelept (advisedly, nestor, philosopher, philosophic, politic, profound, prudent, ripe, sagacious, sage, sapient, thinking, well advised, wise, wisely). (various references) | |
Russian | философский (philosophic). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | filosofki. (various references) | |
Spanish | filosófico (philosophic). (various references) | |
Swedish | lugn (calm, placid, quiescent, serene, tranquil), filosofsk. (various references) | |
Turkish | sakin (airless, calm, citizen, comfortable, composed, composedly, dispassionate, domicilled, dweller, equal, even, even tempered, habitant, halcyon, hushed, imperturbable, in repose, indweller, inhabitant, inmate, laidback, local, nerveless, noiseless, Pacific, peaceable, peaceful, philosophic, placid, quiescent, quiet, reposeful, resident, sedate, serene, smooth, steady, still, tenant, tranquil, unperturbed, unruffled, untroubled), kalender (carefree, philosophic, unconventional), filozofik (philosophic), felsefi (philosophic), düşünceli (abstracted, advised, circumspect, considerate, delicate, forethoughtful, meditative, minded, mindful, pensive, philosophic, reflective, regardful, ruminant, ruminative, sophisticated, tactful, thoughtful, wistful, worried). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | філософський (philosophic), мудрий (gash, philosophic, quaint, sage, sapiential, wise). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thông thái (learned, philosophic, read, scholar, scholarly), khôn ngoan (advisable, day, discreet, philosophic, politic, politically, sage, sapiential, subtle). (various references) | |
Welsh | athronyddol. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "philosophical": philosophically. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "philosophical": nonphilosophical. (additional references) | |
| |
"Philosophical" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: philosophia, philosophica, Philosophicum, philosophycal, philosopical, philosphical, philsophical, phylosophical. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "philosophical" (pronounced fi'lusÄ"fikul) |
| 5 | -f i k u l | autobiographical, biographical, geographical, graphical, typographical. |
| 4 | -i k u l | acoustical, alphabetical, analytical, antithetical, apolitical, archaeological, archeological, astrological, astronautical, astronomical, asymmetrical, atypical, bicycle, biological, biomedical, biotechnological, botanical, categorical, cervical, chronological, classical, comical, conical, critical, cubicle, cyclical, cylindrical, cynical, dermatological, diabolical, dialectical, ecclesiastical, ecological, economical, ecumenical, egotistical, electrical, electrochemical, electromechanical, elliptical, empirical, encyclical, epidemiological, eschatological, ethical, ethnical, evangelical, fanatical, galenical, geological, geometrical, geopolitical, gynecological, helical, heretical, historical, hypercritical, hypocritical, hysterical, icicle, identical, ideological, illogical, immunological, spherical, statistical, stereotypical, strategical, surgical, symmetrical, tactical, technical, technological, teleological, testicle, theatrical, theological, inimical, ironical, lackadaisical, lexical, liturgical, logical, logistical, lyrical, magical, mathematical, mechanical, metallurgical, metaphorical, metaphysical, methodological, metrical, morphological, musical, mystical, mythological, neoclassical, neurological, nonelectrical, nonpolitical, nonsensical, nonsurgical, nontechnical, ontological, optical, ornithological, paradoxical, pathological, pedagogical, periodical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, phonological, physical, physiological, popsicle, preclinical, problematical, prototypical, psychical, psychological, puritanical, rabbinical, radiological, rhetorical, sabbatical, semiclassical, semicylindrical, semitropical, serological, sociological, theoretical, topical, toxicological, tricycle, tropical, tyrannical, umbilical, uncritical, uneconomical, unethical, untypical, vehicle, vertical, viatical, virological, whimsical, zoological. |
| 3 | -k u l | aeronautical, agrochemical, allegorical, anarchical, anatomical, ankle, anthropological, article, barnacle, biblical, bifocal, biochemical, brickle, buckle, cackle, chemical, Chronicle, chuckle, circle, clavicle, clerical, clinical, commonsensical, coracle, cortical, crackle, cuticle, cycle, debacle, diacritical, domical, ducal, encircle, epochal, equivocal, etymological, farcical, fecal, fickle, fiscal, focal, follicle, freckle, geophysical, gonococcal, grackle, grammatical, granduncle, hackle, heckle, heterocercal, hierarchical, honeysuckle, Huckle, hypothetical, impractical, Sokol, sparkle, speckle, spectacle, sprinkle, stickle, suckle, tabernacle, tackle, tentacle, jackal, knuckle, local, maniacal, matriarchal, medical, meikle, meteorological, methodical, Mickle, miracle, monocle, motorcycle, muckle, mythical, nautical, nickel, Nickle, Nicol, numerical, obstacle, Oracle, oratorical, particle, patriarchal, photochemical, pickle, pinnacle, polemical, political, pontifical, practical, pumpernickel, quizzical, radical, ramshackle, rankle, rascal, receptacle, reciprocal, recycle, ruckle, runkle, satirical, shackle, shekel, sickle, skeptical, tickle, tinkle, trickle, twinkle, typical, uncle, unequivocal, unicycle, unshackle, vocal, Winkle, wrinkle. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-h-h-i-i-l-l-o-o-p-p-s" | |
-2 letters: philosophic. | |
-3 letters: halophilic. | |
-5 letters: alcohols. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-h-h-i-i-l-l-o-o-p-p-s" | |
+2 letters: philosophically. | |
+3 letters: nonphilosophical. | |
+5 letters: pathophysiological, physiopathological. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
