Trying to precisely define philosophy can be a challenge.
The origin of the word comes from Greek for the love of wisdom, although modern day thinkers typically try to define it to represent its usage today. And not everybody can agree.
What’s more important is its application to the real world. Maybe you’ve wondered about your purpose on this planet, tried to reason with somebody to see your point of view, or contemplated the meaning behind a piece of art.
It all falls under the umbrella of philosophy, whether it’s deliberate or not. But you don’t have to be an expert in the subject to find meaning, justify opinions or understand what an artist is trying to communicate.
A good place to start, would be the main areas that it covers.
- The Major Branches of Philosophy
- What is Metaphysics?
- What is Epistemology?
- What is Ethics?
- What is Logic?
- What is Aesthetics?
- Philosophy, Science & Religion
The Major Branches of Philosophy
One thing you might notice about philosophy is that it is very easy to disagree. Depending on where you look, you’ll find different opinions about what constitutes as the major branches.
However, there are four or five that show up with some frequency:
- Metaphysics
- Epistemology
- Ethics
- Logic
- Aesthetics
In some cases you might find the likes of deontology or nihilism listed as their own categories, justice might be listed under ethics or political philosophy and some will consider theology completely separate from philosophy altogether rather than a branch of it.
Either way, for the purpose of interdisciplinarity or real-world application, such hair-splitting is unnecessary, but a broad understanding of the primary branches and what they study can be a useful starting point for applying philosophy to the real world.
What is Metaphysics?
Metaphysics, prior to Socrates, typically explored the nature and origins of the universe.
Over the millennia it expanded to cover a wider range of topics such as the philosophy of being (ontology) and free will.
Criticism of metaphysics often lies in the lack of empirical observation or that arguments are about how one chooses to interpret the world rather than actually describing it.
What is Epistemology?
Epistemology is all about knowledge, its limits, how it is acquired or even whether we can actually know what we know.
Within epistemology there are various other branches such as skepticism or empiricism.
What is Ethics?
Ethics refers to the philosophy of what is right or wrong.
Some might use ethics and morals interchangeably, others might argue ethics refers to the broader subject of what is right and wrong, while morals govern an individual’s behaviour.
Either way the goal, in simple terms, is to determine what is good or bad and how people, institutions, societies, or even governments, should behave to do right by others.
What is Logic?
Traditionally, logic is the study of correct reasoning and its application to philosophical problems.
It developed independently across the world with famous logicians such as Aristotle (Greece), Medhatithi Gautama (India) and Mozi (China).
Aristotle is often credited as the father of logic for being the first to attempt a systematic approach to the subject, using variables to give form to logical arguments.
What is Aesthetics?
Aesthetics is the study of beauty and whether experienced in nature, art or some other medium.
This can include asking what is beauty or exploring how it might have an impact on people’s experiences of aesthetic phenomena in other fields, such as religion and psychology.
Philosophy, Science & Religion
Fundamentally, philosophy, science and religion are ways in which people seek some kind of truth or understanding. The debate lies where the three overlap, or not.
What we now call physics, biology and chemistry once belonged to natural philosophy. Philosophy usually relies on experience, reasoning and argument which certainly applies to sciences. But as science progressed, it developed more precise tools and methods for understanding the world.
Religion on the other hand relies much more on faith or revelation and rational thought doesn’t always take precedence. In some cases religion and philosophy are barely indistinguishable, yet for others they are separate entities.
But what’s more important? Whether you define ethics as a science, as part of a religious moral code, or you are capable of applying it to real-world decision making?
Does it matter how you define logic if you keep falling for the same logical fallacies?
And maybe that’s the point. The essence of philosophy requires more than just asking questions; you have to decide what should be asked in the first place.
And everybody will have an opinion.