When considering nearly any academic field, I have found that it all boils down to two components; philosophy and mathematics, in the widest sense. Some fields may mainly or wholly disclude mathematics, but it seems that mathematics, pure mathematics, shows explicitly its ties to philosophical inquiry. Indeed, there have been numerous attempts at drawing the connection between mathematics and logic, most notably the Hilbert programme. These attempts have failed thanks to the insights of Kurt Godel among others, though many new attempts are still being made. It is, for instance, still of import to philosophy to ask what is a number;Frege was one of the first to offer a critial treatment of numbers, however his efforts generally failed, not that they did not yeild intersting results and some definite lasting contributions.

On might be tempted here to ask what philosophy is, that is is so far reaching, but this is a very broad question. Perhaps first we should query as to its function, i.e.What does philosophy do? What has it done? What has it yielded? We see its tendrils reaching across nearly every discipine whether or not it is widely acknowledged(for instance Feynman's strong dislike of philosophy dispite its absolute connection to physics). Indeed the scientific method itself has certain philosophical tennents, especially since logic has now been lumped into the realm of philosophy.

Philosophy has often been utilized in redirecting work in a discipline, in shedding light on what should be done with the work, in showing the consequences of actions, in creating systems of government, in psychology, computer sicence(totally contingent upon the development of binary logic which is a subfield of a field of a branch of philosophy). Philosophy has been applied at some point or other to nearly every aspect of consideration, adapting to include any object which might be considered. Perhaps we might consider philosophy the Art of Consideration. Perhaps not.

Let us examine here the effects of philosophy, the extent of its influence and the circumstances of its absence,i.e. when is philosophy not involved?