Branches of Philosophy

= BMJ Schema =
 * Metaphysics
 * Epistemology
 * Logic
 * Ethics
 * Aesthetics
 * Applied philosophy
 * Political philosophy
 * Philosophy of mind
 * Philosophy of language
 * Metaphilosophy

Note that:
 * Ontology and Cosmology are two important subbranches of Metaphysics. I consider Philosophy of space and time a topic encompassed by Metaphysics distinct from these two subbranches.
 * Philosophy of mathematics overlaps so heavily with Logic, that one could reasonably consider them under the same heading.
 * Ethics and Aesthetics can be grouped as Axiology, but I have chosen not to.
 * I consider Philosophy of action and Philosophy of self to be important subbranches of Philosophy of mind.
 * I have chosen to leave out many of the branches of Applied philosophy which are simply the philosophical considerations of a distinct subject:
 * Philosophy of science
 * Philosophy of 《scientific subdomain》
 * Philosophy of 《humanities subdomain》
 * Philosophy of religion
 * Philosophy of education
 * Philosophy of law

= Schemata found online =

According to: Leverage Edu

 * Axiology: Study of the nature of value and valuation
 * Metaphysics
 * Epistemology
 * Ethics: Study of what is right and wrong in human behaviour
 * Aesthetics: Study of beauty and taste
 * Logic: Study of the nature and types of logic
 * Political Philosophy: Study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions

According to: Kristel Marie Pujanes

 * METAPHYSICS
 * EPISTEMOLOGY
 * LOGIC: Logic is the branch of philosophy that studies reasoning. It teaches us how to differentiate between good and bad reasoning and how to construct valid arguments. It seeks answers to questions like, what is valid reasoning? How can you distinguish between a good argument and a bad argument? How can you spot fallacies or errors in an argument? Now, we’ve all studied logic in one form or another. In Math class, logic came in the form of puzzles or word problems that required the use of inductive or deductive reasoning to arrive at the right equations or solutions. In English/Speech class, we studied fallacies and paradoxes and solved riddles with inferences, which taught us how to create convincing and logical arguments and how to debate properly. And the list goes on.
 * ETHICS: Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is often referred to as the study of morality. It seeks to address questions about how we should live our lives, how we define proper conduct, and what we mean by the good life. It’s a study that teaches us what the virtuous life is like and how we can put these virtues into practice. Ethics concerns itself with questions like, what is the good life? How should we act? What do we mean by virtue? What does “right” even mean?
 * AESTHETICS: In the world of philosophy, Aesthetics refers to the study of everything related to beauty, art, and good taste. This includes how we define art, how we feel when viewing art or witnessing beauty, how we judge works of art, and how we form our taste. This branch of philosophy concerns itself with questions that include: What is art? What makes an artwork successful? Is art an expression of feelings? Can it be a “vehicle of truth?” Is “good taste” innate or learned? And, is art and morality connected?
 * POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: Last on our list is Politics or Political Philosophy. As you can already tell from its name Political Philosophy examines various concepts related to politics, government, laws, liberty, justice, rights, authority, state, and even ethics (ethical ruling). It discusses how states should be built and run, and how its constituents should act. It posits and attempts to answer questions like What is government? What makes a government work? Why do we need governments? What rights and freedoms should be granted to a state’s constituents? Why should the constituents follow any of the laws set by the government? What is the extent of the power of the government? And so on, and so forth.

According to: Wikipedia #1

 * Aesthetics: Study of the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and the creation of personal kinds of truth.
 * Applied aesthetics


 * Epistemology
 * Social epistemology
 * Formal epistemology
 * Metaepistemology


 * Ethics: Study of value and morality.
 * Applied ethics
 * Bioethics
 * Environmental ethics
 * Medical ethics
 * Professional ethics
 * Descriptive ethics
 * Discourse ethics
 * Formal ethics
 * Normative ethics
 * Metaethics


 * Logic: Systematic study of the form of valid inference and reasoning.
 * Classical logic
 * Propositional logic
 * First-order logic
 * Second-order logic
 * Higher-order logic
 * Non-classical logic
 * Description logic
 * Digital logic
 * Fuzzy logic
 * Intuitionistic logic
 * Many-valued logic
 * Modal logic
 * Alethic logic
 * Deontic logic
 * Doxastic logic
 * Epistemic logic
 * Temporal logic
 * Paraconsistent logic
 * Substructural logic


 * Metaphysics
 * Cosmology
 * Ontology
 * Meta-ontology
 * Philosophy of space and time


 * Philosophy of mind: Study of the mind, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain.
 * Philosophy of action
 * Philosophy of self


 * Philosophy of science: Study of the epistemology, methodology and foundations of science
 * Philosophical anthropology
 * Philosophy of archaeology
 * Philosophy of biology
 * Philosophy of chemistry
 * Philosophy of computer science
 * Philosophy of artificial intelligence
 * Philosophy of geography
 * Philosophy of medicine
 * Philosophy of physic
 * Interpretations of quantum mechanics
 * Philosophy of social science
 * Philosophy of economics
 * Philosophy of psychology


 * Other
 * Meta-philosophy
 * Philosophy of education
 * Philosophy of history
 * Philosophy of language
 * Philosophy of law
 * Philosophy of mathematics
 * Philosophy of religion
 * Political philosophy
 * Environmental philosophy

According to Wikipedia #2

 * Aesthetics: the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature." It addresses the nature of art, beauty and taste, enjoyment, emotional values, perception and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more precisely defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.
 * Art theory
 * Literary theory
 * Film theory
 * Music theory


 * Ethics (aka Moral philosophy): studies what constitutes good and bad conduct, right and wrong values, and good and evil. Its primary investigations include how to live a good life and identifying standards of morality. It also includes investigating whether or not there is a best way to live or a universal moral standard, and if so, how we come to learn about it.
 * Branches of ethics:
 * Normative ethics
 * Meta-ethics
 * Applied ethics
 * Ethical viewpoints:
 * Consequentialism (one such view is Utilitarianism)
 * Deontology
 * Virtue ethics


 * Epistemology: studies knowledge. Epistemologists examine putative sources of knowledge, including perceptual experience, reason, memory, and testimony. They also investigate questions about the nature of truth, belief, justification, and rationality.


 * Metaphysics: the study of the most general features of reality, such as existence, time, objects and their properties, wholes and their parts, events, processes and causation and the relationship between mind and body.
 * Cosmology
 * Ontology


 * Logic: the study of reasoning and argument.


 * Philosophy of Mind &amp; Philosophy of Language
 * Philosophy of Mind: explores the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body, as typified by disputes between materialism and dualism. In recent years, this branch has become related to cognitive science.
 * Philosophy of language: explores the nature, origins, and use of language.


 * Philosophy of science: explores the foundations, methods, history, implications and purpose of science.
 * Many of its subdivisions correspond to specific branches of science. For example, philosophy of biology deals specifically with the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical issues in the biomedical and life sciences.


 * Political philosophy: the study of government and the relationship of individuals (or families and clans) to communities including the state. It includes questions about justice, law, property and the rights and obligations of the citizen. Political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics are traditionally linked subjects, under the general heading of value theory as they involve a normative or evaluative aspect.


 * Philosophy of religion: deals with questions that involve religion and religious ideas from a philosophically neutral perspective (as opposed to theology which begins from religious convictions).Traditionally, religious questions were not seen as a separate field from philosophy proper, the idea of a separate field only arose in the 19th century. Issues include the existence of God, the relationship between reason and faith, questions of religious epistemology, the relationship between religion and science, how to interpret religious experiences, questions about the possibility of an afterlife, the problem of religious language and the existence of souls and responses to religious pluralism and diversity.


 * Metaphilosophy: explores the aims, boundaries and methods of philosophy. It is debated as to whether Metaphilosophy is a subject that comes prior to philosophy or whether it is inherently part of philosophy.

According to St Francis University

 * Metaphysics
 * Epistemology
 * Logic
 * Ethics
 * Aesthetics

According to philosophy-index.com

 * Metaphysics, which deals with the fundamental questions of reality.
 * Epistemology, which deals with our concept of knowledge, how we learn and what we can know.
 * Logic, which studies the rules of valid reasoning and argumentation
 * Ethics (aka. moral philosophy), which is concerned with human values and how individuals should act.
 * Aesthetics, which deals with the notion of beauty and the philosophy of art.
 * Other:
 * Philosophy of education
 * Philosophy of language
 * Philosophy of mind
 * Philosophy of religion
 * Philosophy of science
 * Political philosophy

According to importanceofphilosophy.com

 * Metaphysics Study of Existence What's out there?
 * Epistemology Study of Knowledge How do I know about it?
 * Ethics Study of Action What should I do?
 * Politics Study of Force What actions are permissible?
 * Aesthetics Study of Art What can life be like?

According to Michael Wilson
4-branch schema:


 * Metaphysics
 * Epistemology
 * Axiology
 * Logic

5-branch schema:


 * Epistemology. Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
 * Metaphysics. Metaphysics is the study of reality.
 * Ethics. Ethics is the study of moral value, right and wrong.
 * Logic. Logic is the study of right reasoning.
 * Aesthetics.

According to Oriare Nyarwath of University of Nairobi

 * Logic (deals with reasoning)
 * Epistemology (Theory of knowledge)
 * Metaphysics (Beyond Physics: dealing with realities beyond the physical)
 * Ethics

According to Jaimar Tuarez

 * Philosophy of Language
 * Mental Philosophy
 * Metaphysics
 * Ontology
 * Theology
 * Gnoseology
 * Philosophy of science
 * Natural Philosophy
 * Logic
 * Ethics

= Definitions =

Metaphysics

 * Study of:
 * the fundamental nature of reality, reality
 * existence, the nature of being, the fundamental nature of being
 * the physical world and the universe, the world [that encompasses being]


 * Answers:
 * What is the nature of reality? Can "nothingness" exist?
 * How can we say that the world exists outside of our thoughts? How can we prove the existence of something?
 * How can our disembodied minds control or affect our physical bodies?
 * How did mankind come to be? How was the universe made? Was the universe made?

Epistemology

 * Study of:
 * the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge
 * the source, nature and validity of knowledge
 * theory of knowledge
 * the definition, scope, and parameters of knowledge and knowledge formation
 * Answers:
 * What is knowledge? How does knowledge relate to notions like justification, truth, and belief?
 * Where does knowledge fall on the spectrum of certainty and error?
 * How do we acquire knowledge? How do we know what we know? What can we know for certain? What is a justified belief, and what makes it justified?

Political Philosophy
= Disagreements and distinctions =

Epistemology v. Gnoseology
"In most of the philosophical textbooks, epistemology is interpreted either as the branch of philosophy that studies the origin, nature, kinds, validity, and limits of human knowledge, or as the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its scope, methods, and validity, and the distinction between justified belief and personal opinion. Gnoseology is frequently defined as the philosophy of knowledge, the philosophic theory of knowledge, the theory of human faculties for learning, and the theory of cognition. Furthermore, (classical) gnoseology is also seen as the metaphysical theory of knowledge. There are publications that refer to gnoseology as the theory of non-human rooted knowledge. Interestingly, Nikitchenko proposed to use a gnoseology-based approach for developing methodological, conceptual, and formal levels of foundations of informatics."

Axiology v. Ethics/Aesthetics
"Axiology is the study of value. It seeks to understand the nature of values and value judgments. In addition, it attempts to understand how values originate in a society. Axiology has two basic types of values: aesthetics and ethics. Therefore, it is the collective term for ethics and aesthetics. Ethics concerns the concepts of "good" and "right" in individual and social conduct while aesthetics concerns the concepts of "beauty" and "harmony".

= References =