Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or based on a system of philosophy.
  • adjective Characteristic of a philosopher, as in equanimity, enlightenment, and wisdom.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Philosophic.
  • Relating or belonging to philosophy or philosophers; proceeding from, based on, in keeping with, or used in philosophy or in philosophic study or research: as, a philosophical argument.
  • Befitting a philosopher; calm; temperate; wise; controlled by reason; undisturbed by passion; self-controlled.
  • Pertaining to or used in the study of natural philosophy: as, philosophical apparatus; a. philosophical instrument.
  • noun A student of philosophy; a philosopher.
  • noun plural Philosophical studies; philosophy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, or pertaining to, philosophy.
  • adjective Rational; analytic or critically-minded; thoughtful.
  • adjective Detached, calm, stoic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to philosophy or philosophers
  • adjective characterized by the attitude of a philosopher; meeting trouble with level-headed detachment

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From philosophy +‎ -ical, from Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia, "love of knowledge, scientific learning")

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Examples

  • ‘I imagine, ’ he said, ‘that no sort of activity is likely to be lasting if it is not founded on self-interest, that’s a universal principle, a philosophical principle, ’ he said, repeating the word ‘philosophical’ with determination, as though wishing to show that he had as much right as any one else to talk of philosophy.

    Chapter III. Part III 1917

  • The suggestion won't end the debate over Dos Santos's roster decisions, which he called a philosophical matter.

    Dos Santos: NCC needs four teams, semifinals Andrew Bates 2009

  • ABOUT ONCE OR TWICE each year I sat Ian down for what I called a philosophical discussion about archaeology.

    The Goddess and the Bull MICHAEL BALTER 2005

  • As such a way of looking is supposed to be both comprehensive and orderly, it is more or less what we call philosophical, but the points of view are so special and so various that the result is not always what we call a philosophical system.

    Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2 Charles Eliot 1896

  • Shelley, however, did not despair of succeeding in making Byron some day give up what he termed his philosophical errors, and his persistency earned for him the appellation of "serpent" which Byron gave him in jest.

    Lord Byron jugé par les témoins de sa vie. English Teresa Guiccioli 1836

  • While auFeminin relies heavily on Google's search engine as a source of traffic, Ms. Sauty de Chalon was quick to point out what she described as philosophical differences between auFeminin and U.S.

    NYT > Home Page By ERIC PFANNER 2010

  • Kuhn's Protoscience A stage in the development of a science that is described by: • somewhat random fact gathering (mainly of readily accessible data) • a "morass" of interesting, trivial, irrelevant observations • A variety of theories (that are spawned from what he calls philosophical speculation) that provide little guidance to data gathering only the wisest and stupidest of men never change Confucius

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows BSides 2010

  • While auFeminin relies heavily on Google's search engine as a source of traffic, Ms. Sauty de Chalon was quick to point out what she described as philosophical differences between auFeminin and U.S.

    NYT > Home Page By ERIC PFANNER 2010

  • She says the board had many issues with the proposal, including accessibility, preserving green space and what she describes as a philosophical change for the block, which was set aside to preserve intellectual freedom and freedom of speech.

    KCPW 2009

  • Since novels and short stories inherently equivocate, unavoidably qualify and make ambiguous anything that might be straightforwardly "said," anyone who wants to "comment" on social life or engage in philosophical speculation would be well advised to do so more directly than fiction allows.

    Principles of Literary Criticism 2010

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