Philosophy

Branches of philosophy - the main areas of study:

Metaphysics is the study of the nature of being and the world. Traditional branches are cosmology and
ontology.

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible.
Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism and the relationships between
truth, belief, and justification.

Ethics, or "moral philosophy", is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such
questions are answerable. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied
ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, comparison of various ethical systems,
whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Ethics is also associated
with the idea of morality. Plato's early dialogues include a search for definitions of virtue.
Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals and communities to
the state. It includes questions about justice, the good, law, property, and the rights and obligations
of the citizen.

Aesthetics deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional values, perception, and matters of taste
and sentiment.

Logic is the study of valid argument forms. Beginning in the late 19th century, mathematicians such as
Frege focused on a mathematical treatment of logic, and today the subject of logic has two broad
divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic.



Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body, and is typified by disputes between dualism and materialism. In recent years there has been increasing similarity betweenthis branch of philosophy and cognitive science.


Philosophy of language is inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language.

Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy that asks questions about religion.

Most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of
mathematics, the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of law, and the philosophy of history. In addition,
a range of academic subjects have emerged to deal with areas which would have historically been the
subject of philosophy. These include psychology, anthropology and sociology.