8/7/2019 A Brief Rundown of the Main Branches of Philosophy

1/3

A Brief Rundown of the Main Branches of Philosophy.

This is by definition not nearly as in depth as those of you who have studied these branches

might like, but I'm hoping that it will be of interest to those new to the subject, those

looking for a brief description of the kinds of things they might encounter while studying

philosophy. At the top of this list I've put the 3 main subdivisions of philosophy, namely

epistemology, ethics and metaphysics, into which the majority of philosophical activity falls .

Apart from this the list is in alphabetical ordering. In each entry I've also tried to name a few

of the most important works in each branch, though obviously there are far more than I

could list here, particularly in the main 3 branches. To be honest, p retty much every one of

the hundred of so classic works of philosophy could probably be listed under those 3 as

classic, so I've just tried to keep it to the most central ones, and my personal favourites.

Epistemology: The philosophy of knowledge. Concern ed with such questions as, is

knowledge of anything really possible, is our knowledge certain, how do we get our

knowledge, what things can we have knowledge about, what exactly is knowledge, etc.

Classic works include Descartes' Meditations, Locke's An Essay Concerning Human

Understanding, Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

Almost all the major philosophers have written on this subject, though it is less popular

nowadays.

Ethics: This is probably the most self-explanatory of all the branches. Concerned with such

things as what is good/evil, is there such a thing as objective morals or are they created by

us, or some other being, how we should live our lives, and so on. Classic works include

Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ni chomachean Ethics, and Kants Groundwork for the

Metaphysics of Morals, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.

Metaphysics: Meta means above; this is the study of the nature of things above physics.

Metaphysics covers the kinds of things most people probably think of if asked what

philosophy covers e.g. those 'big questions', such as, is there God, why are we here, what is

the ultimate nature of the universe, and so on. Another important area of metaphysics is

the nature of substance, that is, what is the universe really made of, a particular favourite of

mine. Metaphysics has often come under attack for being too abstract to actually have any

worth, particularly famously by A.J. Ayer. Classic works include Aristotle's Metaphysics,

Spinoza's Ethics (which unsurprisingly also is a classic work on Ethics), and almost anything

written by Leibniz.

Aesthetics: The philosophy of art. Concerned with questions like why do we find certain

things beautiful, what makes things great art, so on. Classic works include Aristo tle's

Rhetoric and Poetics, Schopenhauer and Hegel's lectures, Kant's Critique of Judgement.Plato had a famously dim view of this branch.

Philosophy of Education: Fairly self-explanatory. A minor branch mainly concerned with

what is the correct way to ed ucate a person. Classic works include Plato's Republic, Locke's

Thoughts Concerning Education, and Rousseau's Emile.

8/7/2019 A Brief Rundown of the Main Branches of Philosophy

2/3

Philosophy of History: Fairly minor branch (not as minor as education), although highly

important to Hegel and those who followed him, mo st notably Marx. It is the philosophical

study of history, particularly concerned with the question whether history (i.e. the universe

and/or humankind) is progressing towards a specific end? Hegel argued that it was, as did

Marx. Classic works include Vico's New Science, and Hegel and Marx's works.

Philosophy of Language: Ancient branch of philosophy which gained prominence in the last

century under Wittgenstein. Basically concerned with how our languages affect our thought.

Wittgenstein famously asserted that the limits of our languages mark the limits of our

thought. Classic works include Plato's Cratylus, Locke's Essay, and Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Logico-Philosophicus.

Philosophy of Law: Also called Jurisprudence. Study of law attempting to discern wh at the

best laws might be, how laws came into being in the first place, attempting to delimit

human laws from natural laws, whether we should always obey the law, and so on. Law isn't

often directly dealt with by philosophers, but much of political philoso phy obviously has a

bearing on it.

Logic: The study of the proper methods of thinking and reasoning. Logic languages, like

Predicate Logic, promise to produce arguments which, if the premises are true, can only

lead to true conclusions. Logic is slightly different than the other branches as it aims to

suggest the correct ways of studying philosophy in general. Classic works include Aristotle's

Prior and Posterior Analytics, and Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica.

Philosophy of Mathematics: Study of mathematics concerned with issues such as, is

mathematics real or created by us, is it necessary to understand the world, do perfect

mathematical forms exist in the real world, and so on. Principia Mathematica is almost

certainly the most important work in this field.

Philosophy of Mind: Study of the mind, attempting to ascertain exactly what the mind is,

how it interacts with our body, do other minds exist, how does it work, and so on. Probably

the most popular branch of philosophy right now, it has expanded to include issues of AI.

Classic works include Plato's Republic and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations,

although every major philosopher has had some opinion at least on what the mind is and

how it works.

Philosophy of Politics: Closely related to ethics, this is a study of government and nations,

particularly how they came about, what makes good governments, what obligations citizens

have towards their government, and so on. Classic works include Plato's Republic, Hobbes'

Leviathan, Locke's Two Treatises, and J.S. Mill's On Liberty.

Philosophy of Religion: Theology is concerned with the study of God, recommending the

best religious practises, how our religion should shape our life, and so on. Philosophy of

religion is concerned with much the same issues, but where Theology uses religious works,

like the Bible, as its authority, philosophy likes to use reason as the ultimate authority.

8/7/2019 A Brief Rundown of the Main Branches of Philosophy

3/3

Philosophy of Science: Study of science concerned with whether scientific knowledge can

be said to be certain, how we obtain it, can science really explain everything, does cau sation

really exist, can every event in the universe be described in terms of physics and so on. Also

popular in recent times, classic works include Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, Kripke's

Naming and Necessity, Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions.