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as taken From Austin Cline,
Your Guide to
Agnosticism / Atheism.
and Wikipedia.
Thirteen Different Fields of Philosophical Inquiry
Instead of being treated as a
single, unified subject, philosophy is typically broken down into a
number of specialties and it is common for contemporary philosophers to
be experts in one field but know little about another. After all,
philosophy addresses complex issues from all facets of life - being an
expert on all of philosophy would entail being an expert on all of the
most fundamental questions which life has to offer.
This doesn't mean that each
branch of philosophy is entirely autonomous - there is often much
overlap between some fields, in fact. For example, political and legal
philosophy often cross with ethics and morality, while metaphysical
questions are common topics in the philosophy of religion. Sometimes
even deciding which branch of philosophy a question properly belongs in
isn't very clear.
Aesthetics
This is the study of beauty and taste, whether in the form of the
comic, the tragic, or the sublime. The word comes from the Greek aisthetikos,
"of sense perception." Aesthetics has traditionally been part of other
philosophical fields like epistemology or ethics but it started to come
into its own and become a more independent field under Immanuel Kant.
Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of the grounds and nature of knowledge
itself. Epistemological studies usually focus upon our means for
acquiring knowledge; thus modern epistemology generally involves a
debate between rationalism and empiricism, or the question of whether
knowledge can be acquired a priori or a
posteriori.
Ethics
Ethics is the formal study of moral standards and conduct and is also
often called "moral philosophy." What is good? What is evil? How should
I behave - and why? How should I balance my needs against the needs of
others? These are some of the questions asked in the field of ethics.
Metaphysics
In Western philosophy this field has become the study of the
fundamental nature of all reality - what is it, why is it, and how are
we to understand it. Some only regard metaphysics as the study of
"higher" reality or the "invisible" nature behind everything, but that
isn't actually true. It is, instead, the study of all of reality,
visible and invisible.
Ontology
From the Greek [on, <ontos>
being, existence + logia <logos>
word, study of] this is the most fundamental branch of
metaphysics. It studies being or existence and their
basic categories and relationships, to determine what entities and what
types of entities exist. Ontology thus has strong implications for
conceptions of reality.
Logic and the Philosophy of Language
These two fields are often treated separately, but they are close
enough that they are presented together here. Logic is the study of
methods of reasoning and argumentation, both proper and improper. The
Philosophy of Language involves the study of how our language interacts
with our thinking.
Philosophy
of Education
This field deals with how children should be educated, what they should
be educated in, and what the ultimate purpose of education should be
for society. This is an often neglected field of philosophy and is
often addressed only be in educational programs designed to train
teachers - in that context, it is a part of pedagogy, which is learning
how to teach.
Philosophy of History
The Philosophy of History is a relatively minor branch in the field of
philosophy, focusing on the study of history, writing about history,
how history progresses, and what impact history has upon the present
day. This is can be referred to as the Critical, Analytical, or Formal
Philosophy of History, as well as the Philosophy of Historiography.
Philosophy of Mind
The relatively recent specialty known as Philosophy of Mind deals with
the consciousness and how it interacts with the body and the outside
world. It asks not only what mental phenomena are and what gives rise
to them, but also what relationship they have to the larger physical
body and the world around us.
Philosophy of Religion
Sometimes confused with theology, the Philosophy of Religion is the
philosophical study of religious beliefs, religious doctrines,
religious arguments and religious history. The line between theology
and the philosophy of religion isn't always sharp because they share so
much in common, but the primary difference is that theology tends to be
apologetical in nature, committed to the defense of particular
religious positions, whereas Philosophy of Religion is committed to the
investigation of religion itself rather than the truth of any
particular religion.
Philosophy
of Science
This is concerned with how science operates, what the goals of science
should be, what relationship science should have with society, the
differences between science and other activities, etc. Everything that
happens in science has some relationship with the Philosophy of Science
and is predicated upon some philosophical position, even though that
may be rarely evident.
Political
and Legal Philosophy
These two fields are often studied separately, but they are presented
here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study
of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general
community while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should
be used to achieve political and social goals.
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