The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to philosophy:
Philosophy – study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[1][2] It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions (such as mysticism, myth, or the arts) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[3] The word "Philosophy" comes from the Greek philosophia (φιλοσοφία), which literally means "love of wisdom".[4][5][6]
Core areas of philosophy
The core areas of philosophy are:
Fields of philosophy
The branches of philosophy are divided into the many fields of philosophy:
Ethics
Ethics – study of the right, the good, and the valuable
- Applied ethics – philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment. It is thus the attempts to use philosophical methods to identify the morally correct course of action in various fields of human life.
- Decision ethics – ethical theories and ethical decision processes
- Environmental ethics – studies ethical issues concerning the non-human world. It exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography.
- Professional ethics – ethics to improve professionalism
- Computer ethics – deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct
- Research ethics – application of fundamental ethical principles to a variety of topics involving research, including scientific research.
- Bioethics – study of the typically controversial ethical issues emerging from new situations and possibilities brought about by advances in biology and medicine.
- Business ethics – individual based morals to improve ethics in a business environment
- Organizational ethics – ethics among organizations
- Social ethics – ethics among nations and as one global unit
- Descriptive ethics – study of people's beliefs about morality
- Normative ethics – study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act
- Metaethics – branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments
Metaphysics
Metaphysics – traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. Metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: "What is ultimately there?" and, "What is it like?"
- Ontology – philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.
- Philosophy of mind – studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain.
- Philosophy of space and time – branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time.
- Philosophy of action – theories about the processes causing willful human bodily movements of a more or less complex kind. This area of thought has attracted the strong interest of philosophers ever since Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Third Book).
Logic
Logic –
Other
History of philosophy
History of philosophy – study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. Issues specifically related to history of philosophy might include (but are not limited to): How can changes in philosophy be accounted for historically? What drives the development of thought in its historical context? To what degree can philosophical texts from prior historical eras be understood even today?
Ancient philosophy
Western philosophy
Western philosophy
Eastern philosophy
Eastern philosophy
Contemporary philosophy
Contemporary philosophy