Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.Jenny Teichmann and Katherine C. Evans, Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide (Blackwell Publishing, 1999), p. 1: "Philosophy is a study of problems which are ultimate, abstract and very general. These problems are concerned with the nature of existence, knowledge, morality, reason and human purpose."A.C. Grayling, Philosophy 1: A Guide through the Subject (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 1: "The aim of philosophical inquiry is to gain insight into questions about knowledge, truth, reason, reality, meaning, mind, and value." It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions (such as mysticism, myth) by being critical and generally systematic and by its reliance on rational argument.Anthony Quinton, in T. Honderich (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 666: "Philosophy is rationally critical thinking, of a more or less systematic kind about the general nature of the world (metaphysics or theory of existence), the justification of belief (epistemology or theory of knowledge), and the conduct of life (ethics or theory of value). Each of the three elements in this list has a non-philosophical counterpart, from which it is distinguished by its explicitly rational and critical way of proceeding and by its systematic nature. Everyone has some general conception of the nature of the world in which they live and of their place in it. Metaphysics replaces the unargued assumptions embodied in such a conception with a rational and organized body of beliefs about the world as a whole. Everyone has occasion to doubt and question beliefs, their own or those of others, with more or less success and without any theory of what they are doing. Epistemology seeks by argument to make explicit the rules of correct belief formation. Everyone governs their conduct by directing it to desired or valued ends. Ethics, or moral philosophy, in its most inclusive sense, seeks to articulate, in rationally systematic form, the rules or principles involved." It involves logical analysis of language and clarification of the meaning of words and concepts.
The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek philosophia (φιλοσοφία), which literally means "love of wisdom".Philosophia, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at PerseusOnline Etymology DictionaryThe definition of philosophy is: "1.orig., love of, or the search for, wisdom or knowledge 2.theory or logical analysis of the principles underlying conduct, thought, knowledge, and the nature of the universe".
Branches of philosophy The branches of philosophy and their sub-branches that are used in contemporary philosophy are as follows.
Aesthetics Aesthetics is study of the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and the creation of personal kinds of truth. Philosophy of art Philosophy of color Philosophy of design Philosophy of film Philosophy of literature
Epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the source, nature and validity of knowledge.
Social epistemology – inquiry into the social aspects of knowledge. Formal epistemology – the application of formal models to study knowledge. Metaepistemology – studying the foundations of epistemology itself.
Ethics Ethics – study of value and morality. Applied ethics – philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment. It is thus the attempts to use philosophical methods to identify the morally correct course of action in various fields of human life. Bioethics – analysis of controversial ethical issues emerging from advances in medicine. Environmental ethics – studies ethical issues concerning the non-human world. It exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography. Medical ethics – studies ethical issues concerning medicine and medical research. Professional ethics – ethics to improve professionalism. Discourse ethics – discovery of ethical principles through the study of language. Normative ethics – study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act. Metaethics – branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments.
Logic Logic – the systematic study of the form of valid inference and reasoning.
Also regarded as the separate formal science.
Classical logic Propositional logic First-order logic Second-order logic Higher-order logic Non-classical logic Description logic Digital logic Fuzzy logic Intuitionistic logic Many-valued logic Modal logic Alethic logic Deontic logic Doxastic logic Epistemic logic Temporal logic Paraconsistent logic Substructural logic Metalogic Philosophy of logic
Metaphysics Metaphysics – concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it.
Cosmology – the study of the nature and origins of the universe.
Ontology – philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Meta-ontology – study of the ontological foundations of ontology itself. Philosophy of space and time – branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time.
Other Transhumanism Metaphilosophy Phenomenology Philosophy of action Philosophy of education Philosophy of environment Philosophy of history Philosophy of language Philosophy of law Philosophy of life Philosophy of love Philosophy of mathematics Philosophy of mind Philosophy of religion Philosophy of sex
Philosophical anthropology Philosophy of archaeology Philosophy of biology Philosophy of chemistry Philosophy of computer science Philosophy of artificial intelligence Philosophy of geography Philosophy of medicine Philosophy of physics Interpretations of quantum mechanics Philosophy of social science Philosophy of economics Philosophy of psychology Philosophy of sports Philosophy of war Political philosophy Pragmatism Praxeology
Philosophic traditions by region Regional variations of philosophy.
African philosophy
Akan philosophy Ethiopian philosophy Ubuntu philosophy Africana philosophy
Eastern philosophy
Chinese philosophy Indian philosophy Indonesian philosophy Japanese philosophy Korean philosophy Vietnamese philosophy
Middle Eastern philosophy
Iranian philosophy Pakistani philosophy Turkish philosophy
Indigenous American philosophy
Aztec philosophy
Western philosophy
American philosophy Australian philosophy British philosophy Canadian philosophy Czech philosophy Danish philosophy Dutch philosophy French philosophy Greek philosophy German philosophy Italian philosophy Maltese philosophy Polish philosophy Romanian philosophy Russian philosophy Scottish philosophy Slovene philosophy Spanish philosophy Yugoslav philosophy
History of philosophy The history of philosophy in specific contexts of time and space.
Timeline of philosophy
11th century in philosophy 12th century in philosophy 13th century in philosophy 14th century in philosophy 15th century in philosophy 16th century in philosophy 17th century in philosophy 18th century in philosophy 19th-century philosophy 20th-century philosophy
Ancient and classical philosophy Philosophies during ancient history.
Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy
Pre-Socratic philosophy Milesian school - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes Xenophanes Pythagoreanism Heraclitus Eleatics - Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus Pluralists - Empedocles and Anaxagoras Atomists - Leucippus, Democritus Sophists Classical Greek philosophy Socratic schools Megarian school Eretrian school Cynicism Cyrenaics Platonism Peripatetic school Hellenistic philosophy Academic skepticism Middle Academy New Academy Epicureanism Pyrrhonism Stoicism Ancient Roman philosophy Middle Platonism Neopythagoreanism Neoplatonism
Classical Chinese philosophy Hundred Schools of Thought Confucianism Legalism Taoism Mohism School of Naturalists School of Names School of Diplomacy Agriculturalism Syncretism Yangism
Classical Indian philosophy Orthodox schools Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Vaisheshika Mīmāṃsā Vedanta Heterodox schools Ajñana Jain philosophy Buddhist philosophy Ājīvika Charvaka
Medieval and post-classical philosophy
Philosophies during post-classical history.
Christian philosophy
Neoplatonism Christian Scholasticism Thomism
Islamic philosophy
Avicennism Averroism Illuminationism
Jewish philosophy
Judeo-Islamic philosophies
Post-classical Chinese philosophy Neo-Confucianism Xuanxue Zen
Modern and contemporary philosophy Philosophies during the modern era.
Renaissance philosophy
Renaissance humanism Renaissance Jewish philosophy Machiavellianism Neostoicism Ramism School of Salamanca
Early modern philosophy
Empiricism Rationalism Idealism
Contemporary philosophy
Analytic philosophy Logical positivism Logicism Continental philosophy Phenomenology Existentialism Deconstruction Structuralism Contemporary Asian philosophy Buddhist modernism New Confucianism Maoism Kyoto School Neo-Vedanta Contemporary Islamic philosophy Transcendent theosophy Traditionalist School
Philosophical schools of thought Philosophical schools of thought not tied to particular historic contexts.
Aesthetical movements
Symbolism Romanticism Historicism Classicism Modernism Postmodernism Psychoanalytic theory
Epistemological stances
Coherentism Constructivist epistemology Contextualism Embodied cognition Empiricism Fallibilism Foundationalism Holism Infinitism Innatism Internalism and externalism Logical positivism Naïve realism Naturalized epistemology Objectivist epistemology Phenomenalism Positivism Reductionism Reformed epistemology Reliabilism Representative realism Rationalism Situated cognition Skepticism Theory of Forms Transcendental idealism Uniformitarianism
Ethical theories Consequentialism Deontology Virtue ethics Moral realism Moral relativism Error theory Non-cognitivism Ethical egoism Cultural relativism Evolutionary ethics Evolution of morality Face-to-face
Logical systems Classical logic Intermediate logic Intuitionistic logic Minimal logic Relevant logic Affine logic Linear logic Ordered logic Dialetheism
Metaphysical stances
Absurdism Anti-realism Cartesian dualism Free will Materialism Meaning of life Idealism Existentialism Essentialism Libertarianism Determinism Compatibilism Naturalism Monism Philosophical pessimism Platonic idealism Hindu idealism Phenomenalism Nihilism Realism Physicalism MOQ Relativism Scientific realism Solipsism Subjectivism Objectivism Substance theory Type theory Emergentism Emanationism
Political philosophies Anarchism Authoritarianism Communitarianism Conservatism Fascism Liberalism Libertarianism Social democracy Socialism Communism
Philosophy of language theories and stances
Causal theory of reference Contrast theory of meaning Contrastivism Conventionalism Cratylism Deconstruction Descriptivist theory of names Direct reference theory Dramatism Expressivism Linguistic determinism Logical atomism Mediated reference theory Nominalism Non-cognitivism Phallogocentrism Quietism Relevance theory Semantic externalism Semantic holism Structuralism Supposition theory Symbiosism Theological noncognitivism Theory of descriptions Verification theory
Philosophy of mind
Behaviourism Biological naturalism Consciousness Disjunctivism