What is the importance of philosophy in our life and how do you define it?

Some vague answers above. To correct the first guy, Philosophy often uses empirical methods to establish claims. The Philosophy of Perception and the Philosophy of Science obviously do this. But in general, claims made about the world our made via the senses, as in the claim that people ought not to kill. You can't make this claim based on pure reason alone; it assumes you have empirical knowledge of people, the world, and killing.

Philosophy is the most fundamental and basic subject of human inquiry. No matter what you study, you are bound to do some philosophy in that area.

The reason is simple: philosophy deals with the use of reason to establish truth about the world. So although you may be reasoning about something outside of Philosophy, say, a pyschology test about the effects of a drug on a certain group, the claims made about that test are subject to criticisms that critique the reasoning of the claims.

We all do philosophy to a certain degree in this regard. Philosophy, however, strictly speaking, reasons toward the truth of only certain matters though. The issues philosophy deals with are difficult because there is no ONE agreed upon method on how to solve the problems.

For example, the question of whether God exists has been answered by many philosophers, but by different methods. St. Aquinas argued that we only need to look into the world to see that he exists, while St. Anselm argued that God can be proven without any observations, just pure reason.

So this is what seperates Philosophy and everything else; it deals with the issues that we have no agreed upon way of dealing with them. Once we find a way, the issue belongs to another group (often science).

So philosophy is the study of numerous fundamental inquiries and it is important because the things it studies are important.

Philosophy is important because it challenges people to think for themselves and critically about a wide variety of issues. It's not just saying there's a right and wrong but that anything can be right or wrong if different viewpoints are analyzed. Philosophy by definition is the analysis of nature, causes, or principles of reality, as well as of knowledge, morals and values. It is based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods.

I am contantly amazed about the number of people I discover who do not contemplate the universe, why things are the way they are etc. For me philosophy and the ability to think abstractly about life is so important and such a part of me.

I don't think you need to be able to enjoy thinking this way to be different, sucessful, deep or intelligent, but I think it is the life blood of those of us who are curious and like thinking about such things.

Philosophy for me is all about questions and possible answers.

I think it is important because it helps the individual define belief, acknowledge uncertainity in the world, differentiate habit from conviction, and perhaps become more self actualized.

Philosophy is my trying to make sense of a unsensible life so I can live with focus and purpose.