Philosophy

Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. It is the discipline in search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means. The term covers a very wide range of approaches, and is also used to refer to a worldview, to a perspective on an issue, or to the positions argued for by a particular philosopher or school of philosophy. The phrase "a philosophical attitude" is often used to refer to a stoical approach to life. This article concerns philosophy as a discipline.

Philosophical topics

Philosophers analyse and investigate such concepts as existence or being, morality or goodness, knowledge, truth, and beauty. Historically most philosophy has either centred on religious beliefs, or science. Philosophers may ask critical questions about the nature of these concepts — questions typically outside the scope of other disciplines, such as science. Several major works of post-medieval philosophy begin by examining the nature of philosophy. Philosophers are motivated by specific questions such as:

Related Topics:
Existence - Being - Morality - Goodness - Knowledge - Truth - Beauty - Religious belief - Science

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• What is truth? How or why do we identify a statement as correct or false, and how do we reason? What is wisdom?
• Is knowledge possible? How do we know what we know? What is unknown? If knowledge is possible, what is known vs. unknown? How do we take what is "known" to extrapolate what is "unknown".
• Is there a difference between morally right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Are values absolute, or relative? In general or particular terms, how should I live? How is right and wrong defined?
• What is reality, and what things can be described as real? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the nature of thought and thinking? What is it to be a person?
• What is it to be beautiful? How do beautiful things differ from the everyday? What is Art? Does true beauty exist?

These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. They are not the only subjects of philosophical inquiry, and there are many overlaps between the categories which are subsumed within the discipline under the four major headings of Logic, Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology. Aristotle, who was the first to use this classification (as he believed that to call himself "sophos" or wise was immodest), also considered politics (which he saw as part of ethics), modern-day physics, geology, biology, meteorology, and astronomy as branches of philosophical investigation. The Greeks, through the influence of Socrates and his method, developed a tradition of analysis that divided a subject into its components to understand it better.

Related Topics:
Logical - Epistemological - Ethical - Metaphysical - Aesthetic - Ontology - Axiology - Aristotle - Politics - Physics - Geology - Biology - Meteorology - Astronomy - Socrates - His method - Analysis

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Other traditions did not always use such labels, or emphasize the same themes. While Hindu philosophy has similarities with Western philosophy, there was no word for "philosophy" in Japanese, Korean, or Chinese until the 19th century, despite long-established philosophical traditions. Chinese philosophers, in particular, used different categories than the Greeks. Definitions were not based on common features, but were usually metaphorical and referred to several subjects at once http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G001. Boundaries between categories are not distinct in Western philosophy, however, and since at least the 19th century, Western philosophical works have usually addressed a nexus of questions rather than distinct topics.

Related Topics:
Hindu philosophy - Western philosophy - Japanese - Korean - Chinese - 19th century - Chinese philosophers

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