The answer that I will attempt to give for this question will be by no means exhaustive, specific, or even comprehensive. It falls more along the lines of an inductive generalization, with an emphasis on the generalization part. So, what do philosophers do?
Philosophers think about things. A philosopher might say, “What is a thing?” Ideas, apples, souls, words, and computers are all examples of things. A brave philospher might even say, “What kind of a person asks, ‘What is a thing?’” At that point, things usually become much more interesting.
Philosophers often think about ‘reality’ as if it is a thing. Actually, philosphers do much more than simply think about things. Events, processes, passages, disjunctions, break-downs, freak-outs, and restorations can all be thought about.
Philosophers write and have their writings published. Except Socrates. He didn’t write anything down. He just liked to have extraordinarily strange conversations. Communication is important in doing philosophy. After all, ideas don’t exist merely in people’s heads.
Philosophers ask themselves what they do. It is important for philosphers to ask questions. Far from being pointless, the questions philosphers ask often have the power to catapult thinkers out of ruts….
