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• Philosophy


  The study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language
• Philosophical methods


  • Questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation
• Classic philosophical questions


  • Is it possible to know anything and to prove it?
  • What is most real?
  • Is there a best way to live?
  • Is it better to be just or unjust (if one can get away with it)?
  • Do humans have free will?
• Natural philosophy


  Encompassed astronomy, medicine and physics
• In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize
• In the modern era, some investigations that were traditionally part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology, linguistics and economics
• Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy
• Major sub-fields of academic philosophy

  • Metaphysics
  • Epistemology
  • Ethics
  • Aesthetics
  • Political philosophy
  • Logic
  • Philosophy of science
  • History of Western philosophy
• Since the 20th century, professional philosophers contribute to society primarily as professors, researchers and writers
• Many of those who study philosophy in undergraduate or graduate programs contribute in the fields of law, journalism, politics, religion, science, business and various art and entertainment activities
• Traditional division of philosophy

  • Natural philosophy
  • Moral philosophy
  • Metaphysical philosophy
• This division is not obsolete but has changed
• Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences


  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Cosmology
• Moral philosophy has birthed the social sciences


  • Ethics
  • Aesthetics
  • Political philosophy
• Metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences


  • Logic
  • Mathematics
  • Philosophy of science
  • Epistemology
  • Metaphysics
• Metaphysics


  The study of the most general features of reality, such as existence, time, objects, events, processes and causation, and the relationship between mind and body
• Metaphysics includes


  • Cosmology
  • Ontology
• Realism


  Holds that there are entities that exist independently of their mental perception
• Idealism


  Holds that reality is mentally constructed or otherwise immaterial
• Essence


  The set of attributes that make an object what it fundamentally is and without which it loses its identity
• Accident


  A property that the object has, without which the object can still retain its identity
• Particulars


  • Objects that are said to exist in space and time
  • Abstract objects such as numbers
  • Universals which are properties held by multiple particulars, such as redness or a gender
• Epistemology


  The study of knowledge
• Putative sources of knowledge

  • Intuition
  • A priori reason
  • Memory
  • Perceptual knowledge
  • Self-knowledge
  • Testimony
• Putative knowledge includes


  • Propositional knowledge (knowledge that something is the case)
  • Know-how (knowledge of how to do something)
  • Acquaintance (familiarity with someone or something)
• Skepticism


  The position which doubts claims to knowledge
• Approaches to the regress argument in epistemology


  • Infinitism (the chain can go on forever)
  • Foundationalism (it can eventually rely on basic beliefs that are left unproven)
  • Coherentism (it can go in a circle so that a statement is included in its own chain of justification)
• Rationalism


  The emphasis on reasoning as a source of knowledge, associated with a priori knowledge independent of experience
• Empiricism


  The emphasis on observational evidence via sensory experience as the source of knowledge
• Broad topics within metaphysics and epistemology

  • Philosophy of language
  • Philosophy of mind
  • Philosophy of religion
  • Philosophy of human nature
  • Metaphilosophy
• Branches of value theory

  • Ethics
  • Aesthetics
  • Political philosophy
  • Philosophy of law
  • Philosophy of education
  • Feminist philosophy
  • Philosophy of sport
• The relationship between "X" and the "philosophy of X" is debated
• Richard Feynman argued that the philosophy of a topic is irrelevant to its primary study, saying that "philosophy of science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds"
• Curtis White argued that philosophical tools are essential to humanities, sciences and social sciences
• Logic


  The study of reasoning and argument
• Argument


  A connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition
• Components of an argument


  • Premises
  • Conclusion
• Deductive reasoning


  When, given certain premises, conclusions are unavoidably implied
• Rules of inference are used to infer conclusions such as modus ponens, where given "A" and "If A then B", then "B must be concluded"
• Sub-fields of logic


  • Mathematical logic
  • Philosophical logic
  • Modal logic
  • Computational logic
  • Non-classical logics