- For a topic outline on this subject, see List of basic philosophy topics
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While the simple definition and etymology of Philosophy is clear, in practice philosophy can be characterised in great number of ways - which give rise to a wealth of different (often conflicting) meanings. Throughout history, philosophy has existed as both an activity and an object of contemplation. Adding to this complexity, individual philosophers often develop new and subtle aspects of philosophy to suit their particular projects. The result is that today no simple definition of philosophy enjoys universal agreement. This issue, in fact, has prompted the creation of a new sub-discipline: metaphilosophy (or the philosophy of philosophy).
The word 'philosophy' itself was coined by the ancient Greeks who combined the terms philo- (to love or to befriend) and -sophia (wisdom). Modern usage of the term is rather narrower, encompassing mainly epistemology - or the study of knowledge and the means by which knowledge can be acquired. This is particularly the case in Anglo-American academia, where the sphere of philosophy came to be dominated by analytic philosophy in the 20th century. In continental European discourse another, rather different, 20th century strain of thought tends to predominate: continental philosophy.
Aristotle organized the subject into five basic categories: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and aesthetics. This organization of the subject is still largely in use in Western philosophy today.
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| Branches of Philosophy |
Philosophy ponders the most fundamental questions humankind has been able to ask. These are increasingly numerous and over time they have been arranged into the overlapping branches of the philosophy tree:
- Logic: What makes a good argument? How can I think critically about complicated arguments? What makes for good thinking? When can I say that something just does not make sense? Where is the origin of logic?
- Epistemology: What are the nature and limits of knowledge? What is more fundamental to human existence, knowing (epistemology) or being (ontology)? How do we come to know what we know? What are the limits and scope of knowledge? How can we know that there are other minds (if we can)? How can we know that there is an external world (if we can)? How can we prove our answers? What is a true statement?
- Metaphysics: What sorts of things exist? 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 relationship of the mind to the body? What is it to be a person? What is it to be conscious? Do gods exist?
- Ethics: Is there a difference between ethically right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Do divine commands make right acts right, or is their rightness based on something else? Are there standards of rightness that are absolute, or are all such standards relative to particular cultures? How should I live? What is happiness?
- Aesthetics: What is art? What is beauty? Is there a standard of taste? Is art meaningful? If so, what does it mean? What is good art? Is art for the purpose of an end, or is "art for art's sake?" What connects us to art? How does art affect us? Is some art unethical? Can art corrupt or elevate societies?
- Philosophy of Language: How are sentences composed into a meaningful whole, and what are the meanings of the parts of sentences? What is the nature of meaning? (What exactly is a meaning?) What do we do with language? How do we use it socially? (What is the purpose of language?) How does language relate to the mind, both of the speaker and the interpreter? How does language relate to the world? (Courtesy of the Philosophy of Language wikipedia page)
- Political philosophy: Are political institutions and their exercise of power justified? What is justice? Is there a 'proper' role and scope of government? Is democracy the best form of governance? Is governance ethically justifiable? Should a state be allowed? Should a state be able to promote the norms and values of a certain moral or religious doctrine? Are states allowed to go to war? Do states have duties against inhabitants of other states?
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| Selected Philosopher |
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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, was an English philosopher, statesman and essayist but is best known for leading the scientific revolution with his new 'observation and experimentation' theory which is the way science has been conducted ever since. He was knighted in 1603, created Baron Verulam in 1618, and created Viscount St Albans in 1621; though both peerage titles became extinct upon his death. Bacon did not propose an actual philosophy, but rather a method of developing philosophy; he wrote that, whilst philosophy at the time used the deductive syllogism to interpret nature, the philosopher should instead proceed through inductive reasoning from fact to axiom to law.
He began his professional life as a lawyer, but he has become best known as a philosophical advocate and defender of the scientific revolution. His works establish and popularize an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method. Induction implies drawing knowledge from the natural world through experimentation, observation, and testing of hypotheses. In the context of his time, such methods were connected with the occult trends of hermeticism and alchemy.
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| Western philosophical schools of thought |
| Agnosticism - Alexandrian school - Analytic philosophy - Anarchism - Atheism - Cambridge Platonists -Capitalism - Cartesian doubt - Christian philosophy - Coherentism - Consequentialism - Contextualism - Contractualism - Continental philosophy - Communism - Critical theory - Cynics - Deconstructionism - Deep Ecology - Deism - Deontology - Egoism - ecosophy - Empiricism - Epicureanism - Ethical egoism - Existentialism - Extropianism - Foundationalism - Frankfurt School - Hegelianism - Hermeneutics - Humanism - Idealism - Integral theory - Islamic philosophy - Jewish philosophy - Liberalism - Logical positivism - Marxist philosophy - Materialism - Modernism - Mysticism - Neoplatonism - Nihilism - Objectivism - Phenomenalism - Phenomenology - Postmodernism - Pragmatism - Psychological egoism - Rationalism - Realism - Relativism - Reliabilism - Platonism - Scholasticism - School of Brentano - Scotism - Situated ethics - Situational ethics - Skepticism - Solipsism - Sophism - Spiritism - Stoicism - Theology - Transcendentalism - Theism - Thomism - Transhumanism - Utilitarianism - Young Hegelians - Verificationism - Vienna Circle - Virtue ethics - Western philosophy |
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| Eastern and other philosophical schools of thought |
| African philosophy - Ayyavazhi - Buddhism - Confucianism - Eastern philosophy - Ethiopian philosophy - Hinduism - Jainism - Karma - Legalism - Maoism - Shinto - Islamic philosophy - Sufism - Taoism - Kyoto School - Baul - Zoroastrianism |
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| Things you can do |
WikiProject Philosophy task list
- German Idealism and the articles related to it may need to be rewritten or expanded to avoid undue weight on Arthur Schopenhauer.
- Protected Values first section confuses right action and values and needs a copy edit, moving and wikifying
- Ludwig Wittgenstein is having its FA status reviewed due to a couple of concerns. Help save Ludwig! See Wikipedia:Featured article review/Ludwig Wittgenstein for requirements for retaining FA status.
- Quality (philosophy) needs a more clear explanation.
- Socratic dialogues could do with some tidying and clarification. See the talk page for one suggested change.
- Problem of universals: The introductory definition is (perhaps) fixed. But, the article is poor. Check out the German version.
- Teleology: the article is shallow and inconsistent.
- Existentialism: the quality of this article varies wildly and is in desperate need of expert attention.
- Star of Sophia Vote for or nominate someone you think is deserving!
- Analytic philosophy This is a very major topic, but still has several sections which are stubs, and several topics which are not covered.
- Inverse (logic) This article makes me wish that there were a fail grade on the quality scale. Someone should rewrite it.
- Lifeworld A philosophical concept that seems to have fallen exclusively into the hands of the sociologists. Could use some attention; it's a major and complex issue in phenomenology.
- Amorality This page needs great attention as it is currently totally uninformative and, in my opinion, risks more to confuse readers than inform them, as most people will come here with no knowledge of amoralism and worse, often with huge bias against it.
Vote | Larry's Text | stubs | edit this list | discuss these tasks | Category:Philosophy | Portal:Philosophy | RFC | Deletion | Requested articles | Noticeboard | Discussion
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| General topics of Philosophy |
- Philosophy - main article on Philosophy, leads to many others.
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| Did you know... |
- ...that Francisco de Vitoria, a Spanish Renaissance Roman Catholic theologian, was the founder of the tradition in philosophy known as the School of Salamanca?
- ...that a 2001 discovery of lost manuscripts by Spanish philosopher and writer Ramon Llull showed that he had indeed discovered the Borda count and Condorcet criterion, and as a result he has been called the father of computation theory?
- ...that although the paradox, Buridan's ass, is named after French priest Jean Buridan, it had already been previously stated in De Caelo by Aristotle?
- ...that besides being a philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz was an engineer, lawyer, philologist, sinophile, and a famed mathematician who invented calculus?
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| Selected Philosophy article |
| Applied ethics is a discipline of philosophy that attempts to apply 'theoretical' ethics, such as utilitarianism, social contract theory, and deontology to solve actual real world dilemmas. In so doing, it illuminates the potential for disagreement over the way theories and principles should be applied. Strict, principle-based ethical approaches often result in solutions to specific problems that are not universally acceptable. Drawing on medical ethics for an example, a strict deontological approach would never permit the deception of a patient about their condition, whereas a utilitarian approach would involve consideration of the consequences of so doing, and might permit lying to a patient if the result of the deception was 'good'. The example demonstrates that a deontologist can derive a different solution to a dilemma than a utilitarian.
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| Fields of Philosophy |
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| Lists of philosophical topics |
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| Miscellaneous |
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| Philosophy WikiProjects |
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| Associated Wikimedia |
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