Philosophy means many different things to many different people. My dictionary cites 12 definitions. Professional philosophers might prefer the one that defines philosophy as the science comprising logic, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology. Personally, I like the one that says philosophy is the system of values by which one lives. All people have such values, though they may not think of them in terms of a system. But many people do not know enough about their personal values to identify them with a given philosophy. They're more apt to define their system of values and themselves in terms of a religion, e.g. "I'm a Christian or a Buddhist", or an ideology, e.g. "I'm a conservative or a liberal", or perhaps both. Even then, most people are unable to name and/or define the values that belong to the religion or ideology with which they identify themselves, and chances are good that they don't live by or even like all the values of either, anyway. Like others, I have long struggled with the questions of what my personal system of values is and what it should be called. At long last, I have finally decided that I don't fit into any given philosophical niche and for that reason to name my personal philosophy "rational realism". I shall endeavor in time to make clearer exactly what I mean by that term. On the ideological side of things, I'm a conservative, but my conservatism does not equate to the explicit or implicit definitions of that term one tends to hear in the mainstream media and elsewhere. That may also require some explanation, which I'll also endeavor to give in time.