The Nature of Philosophy
Philosophy is defined in many dictionaries as the love of wisdom or knowledge, but this merely reveals the confusion of the community. Tradition does not reveal what constitutes wisdom or that only the knowledge of a sane understanding can be the correct recognition of cause and effect! As tradition has been unable to define wisdom or sanity, the community has NEVER known what philosophy is. Ergo, before philosophy can be defined, then wisdom and sanity must be defined.
The Role of Religion
1. However for sanity to be the same for every citizen, the revered code must be common to every citizen; and the interpretation of the code must be applied independently of any particular citizen's wishes; which is the traditional role of religion. Hence, the role of the church is to uphold the sanity of the community.
Thus without the worship of an independent code dictating right from wrong — a religion — no citizen, and no community, can be sane or free from delusion.
Philosophy is the Study of Understanding
Wisdom is the understanding allowed by combining sanity and knowledge, so philosophy can be defined as the study of how understanding creates truth. This is confirmed by those sources of knowledge that describe philosophy as being about ultimate reality, for reality, ultimate or otherwise, can only be a truth created by an understanding.
Philosophy is the Study of Civilisation
As a civilisation is a dominant society, and a society is a shared understanding then Philosophy can be considered the study of how a civilisation creates truth, so a theory of civilisation must be philosophy.