ABSTRACT
Philosophy (philia-love + sophia-wisdom) is the love or pursuit of wisdom. In the West, this pursuit has centered on the use of logical reasoning as its method, and the scholarly discipline of philosophy in many Western academic institutions still generally tends to favor rational thought as the most (and for some philosophers the only) acceptable technique for the acquisition of wisdom. However, in Eastern philosophical traditions, as well as in the past in the West, wisdom is and was generally regarded as deriving from the full compass of human abilities. Thus its methods, together with the application of logical thinking, include self-discipline, the cultivation of moral virtues, the use of the senses (i.e. empirical data), and the development of intuitive understanding. Some of these latter methods, such as attaining profound intuitive insights, are believed to grant superior access to wisdom than is granted by rational thought alone.
