"Philosophy is the highest form of thought."
- Everything Shii Knows[1]
I agree. But first, we must ask ourselves:
Philosophy is about studying the fundamental nature of reality, study of knowing, and, yes, existence.
I'm sure I'm not alone with how bad my younger impression towards philosophy was. The first philosophers I remember learning of were, of course, the Ancient Greek ones, but also the Enlightenment Era and 19th Century philosophers. The reason I consider the first impression to have been bad is because I viewed philosophy to be in contrast with religion. Rookie mistake! This leaves out Medieval philosophy; that is, Islamic and European. You may notice that both of those civilizations were famously religious. But most importantly, philosophy as a discipline is too eurocentric!
Short answer: Socrates.
Reverse the question, and the answer is yes, science is a philosophy! Science used to be called natural philosophy, and scientists, natural philosophers. But there's an even deeper meaning: The Latin for "nature" is "natura" which in Ancient Greek becomes "φύσις", which sounds like phusis or physis. You can probably guess where this is going.
Uhh ohh, this is gonna need a new section.
Meta-physics. The underlying reality of nature? hm, let's check... First principles! Metaphysics are first principles.
Form is something's configuration or appearence. A way thoughts can appear is as philosophy.
In Platonism, forms are the immaterial, eternal essence of things. For Plato, the highest form of all is called "The Good", which gives form to all the other forms. He considers it superior to even truth or justice. This idea of "The Good" seems to have been a prelude to monotheistic thought later on, so it would stick around.
Rhetoric is what aspiring politicians in the Greco-Roman world learned, and it's legacy can be felt in modern day politics.
Many believe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is true. It says that language structure affects people's experience. But here's an observation against this: most people hate mainstream media. If language was more powerful, the majority of us would support whatever they support. And consider the discourse around American healthcare [2]. Convincing, right? Now consider what people have done with that information. Notice the difference? I recommend finding what linguists have to say about this idea, as they can explain it better. I therefore consider the hypothesis to be wrong. Not outright false, but wrong.
Morality and ethics overlap. In brief, they describe how people should and shouldn't act. Certain acts are seen as good, and ought to be encouraged, but some acts are considered bad, or even evil.
Bad is when something doesn't work right, or has problems and mistakes. The word "good" most commonly relates to this context. As for good and evil, evil usually describes actions done to the detriment of others, while good actions benefit others.
See: Problem of Evil