Areas/Branches of Philosophy

• Multiple concepts of philosophy are divided into areas or branches to further categorize, define, and understand each concept better.
• Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with questioning one's existence.
• Metaphysics encompasses the study of what is sometimes termed "ultimate reality", and raises questions about reality that go beyond science and the experience of the senses.
• Epistemology deals with the nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge (Soccio, 2007).
• Epistemology explains three questions: How do we know what we claim to know? How can we find out what we wish to know? How can we differentiate truth from falsehood?
• Ethics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates the moral reality and virtue of human actions.
• Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with morality and what is the proper course of action for a human.
• We base our standards of behavior on the five main frameworks of ethics. These are Divine Command, Consequentialism or Utilitarianism, Deontological Ethics, Virtue Ethics, and Relativism.
• Divine Command follows the question " What does God ordain us to do?"
• Consequentialism or Utilitarianism follows the question "What has the most desirable consequences?"
• In the framework of Consequentialism or Utilitarianism, the choice that will be beneficial to the greatest number of people is considered the best moral choice.
• Deontological Ethics follows the principle of doing one's moral duty.
• For Deontological Ethics, no matter what the individual feels about the situation, he/she must do the right thing because of his/her moral duty.
• Virtue Ethics follows the question "What kind of person do I ought to be?"
• Virtue Ethics focuses on the character development of individuals and their acquisition of good virtue ethics (Tavani, 2011).
• Relativism follows the question "What does my culture or society think I ought to do?"
• Ethical relativism is the theory that holds that morality is relative to the norms of an individual's culture.
• Logic is the study of the rules of correct reasoning.
• Logic comes from the Greek word "logike".
• The Greek word "logike" was coined by Zeno the Stoic, which means to treatise on matters pertaining to human thought.
• Social philosophy is the study of questions about social behavior (typically, of humans.)
• Political philosophy deals with the study of the city, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority.
• Aesthetics is the study of perceptions, feelings, judgments, and ideas associated with the appreciation of beauty, art, and objects in general.