Outline of

philosophy

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:

Aesthetics – study of the nature of

beauty, art, and taste, and the creation
of personal kinds of truth
Epistemology – study of the nature
and scope of knowledge and belief
Ethics – study of the right, the good,
and the valuable. Includes study of
 applied ethics
Logic – study of good reasoning, by
examining the validity of arguments
and documenting their fallacies
Metaphysics – study of the taste of
being and the nature of reality

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
Ethics of artificial
intelligence – specific to
robots and other
artificially intelligent
beings.
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.
Medical ethics – ethics to
improve basic health needs of
humans
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 –

Propositional logic
Predicate logic
Modal logic
Other

Political philosophy
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of science
Meta-philosophy
Philosophy of law
Philosophy of education
Philosophy of history
Philosophy of mathematics

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

Sophism
Epicureanism
Stoicism
Axial age

Western philosophy
Western philosophy

Medieval philosophy (Scholasticism)

Renaissance philosophy
Modern philosophy

Eastern philosophy

Eastern philosophy

Islamic philosophy
Indian philosophy
Chinese philosophy

Contemporary philosophy

Contemporary philosophy

Analytic philosophy
 Continental philosophy

Philosophical theories
Major traditions in philosophy

Analytic philosophy
Continental philosophy
Eastern philosophy

Philosophical movements

Philosophical movement
Ancient

Confucianism
Platonic realism
Aristotelianism
Pythagoreanism
Pyrrhonian skepticism
Epicureanism (hedonism)
Stoicism
Cynicism
Medieval

Neo-Confucianism
Neoplatonism
Thomism
Scotism
 Scholasticism
Modern

Empiricism
Existentialism
German idealism
Logicism
Logical Positivism
Marxism
Phenomenology
Poststructuralism
Pragmatism
Rationalism
Structuralism
Utilitarianism

Philosophies by branch
Philosophies by branch
Aesthetics

Aesthetics

Symbolism
Romanticism
Historicism
Classicism
Modernism
Postmodernism
Psychoanalytic theory

Epistemology

Epistemology
Coherentism
Constructivist epistemology
Contextualism
Embodied cognition
Empiricism
Fallibilism
Foundationalism
Holism
Infinitism
Innatism
Internalism and externalism
Naïve realism
Naturalized epistemology
Objectivist epistemology
 Phenomenalism
Positivism
Reductionism
Reliabilism
Representative realism
Rationalism
Situated cognition
Skepticism
Theory of Forms
Transcendental idealism
Uniformitarianism

Ethics

Ethics
 Consequentialism
Deontology
Virtue ethics
Moral realism
Moral relativism
Error theory
Non-cognitivism
Ethical egoism
Cultural relativism
Evolutionary ethics
Evolution of morality

Logic

Logic
 Classical logic
Intermediate logic
Intuitionistic logic
Minimal logic
Relevant logic
Affine logic
Linear logic
Ordered logic
Dialetheism

Metaphysics

Metaphysics

Anti-realism
Cartesian dualism
Free will
Materialism
Meaning of life
Idealism
Existentialism
Essentialism
Libertarianism
Determinism
Naturalism
Monism
Platonic idealism
Hindu idealism
Phenomenalism
Nihilism
 Realism
Physicalism
MOQ
Relativism
Scientific realism
Solipsism
Subjectivism
Substance theory
Type theory
Emergentism
Emanationism

Political philosophy

Political philosophy
 Anarchism
Authoritarianism
Conservatism
Liberalism
Libertarianism
Social democracy
Socialism

Philosophy of language

Philosophy of language

Causal theory of reference

Contrast theory of meaning
Contrastivism
Conventionalism
Cratylism
Deconstruction
Descriptivist theory of names
Direct reference theory
Dramatism
Expressivism
Linguistic determinism
Logical atomism
Logical positivism
Mediated reference theory
Nominalism
Non-cognitivism
Phallogocentrism
Quietism
 Relevance theory
Semantic externalism
Semantic holism
Structuralism
Supposition theory
Symbiosism
Theological noncognitivism
Theory of descriptions
Verification theory

Philosophy of mind

Philosophy of mind

Behaviourism
Biological naturalism
Disjunctivism
Dualism
Eliminative materialism
Emergent materialism
Enactivism
Epiphenomenalism
Functionalism
Identity theory
Idealism
Interactionism
Materialism
Monism
Neutral monism
Panpsychism
 Phenomenalism
Phenomenology
Physicalism
Property dualism
Representational theory of mind
Sense-datum theory
Solipsism
Substance dualism
Qualia theory

Philosophy of religion

Philosophy of religion

Theories of religion
Acosmism
Agnosticism
Animism
Antireligion
Atheism
Dharmism
Deism
Divine command theory
Dualism
Esotericism
Exclusivism
Existentialism
Christian
Agnostic
Atheist
Feminist theology
Fideism
Fundamentalism
Gnosticism
Henotheism
Humanism
Religious
Secular
Christian
Inclusivism
Monism
Monotheism
Mysticism
Naturalism
Metaphysical
Religious
 Humanistic
New Age
Nondualism
Nontheism
Pandeism
Pantheism
Perennialism
Polytheism
Process theology
Spiritualism
Shamanism
Taoic
Theism
Transcendentalism
Religious philosophy

Buddhist philosophy
Christian philosophy
Hindu philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Jain philosophy
Jewish philosophy

Philosophy of science

Philosophy of science

Confirmation holism
Coherentism
Contextualism
Conventionalism
Deductive-nomological model
Determinism
Empiricism
Fallibilism
Foundationalism
Hypothetico-deductive model
Infinitism
Instrumentalism
Philosophy_of_artificial_intelligence
Positivism
Pragmatism
Rationalism
Received view of theories
Reductionism
 Semantic view of theories
Scientific realism
Scientism
Scientific anti-realism
Skepticism
Uniformitarianism
Vitalism

Philosophical literature
Blackwell Companion to Philosophy
A History of Western Philosophy, by
Bertrand Russell
A History of Philosophy, by Frederick
Copleston

Reference works
Encyclopedia of Philosophy – one of
the major English encyclopedias of
philosophy. The second edition, edited
by Donald M. Borchert, was published
in ten volumes in 2006 by Thomson
Gale. Volumes 1–9 contain
alphabetically ordered articles.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy –
free online encyclopedia on
philosophical topics and philosophers
founded by James Fieser in 1995. The
current general editors are James
Fieser (Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Tennessee at Martin) and
Bradley Dowden (Professor of
Philosophy at California State
University, Sacramento). The staff also
includes numerous area editors as well
as volunteers.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
– encyclopedia of philosophy edited by
Edward Craig that was first published
by Routledge in 1998 (ISBN 978-
0415073103). Originally published in
both 10 volumes of print and as a CD-
ROM, in 2002 it was made available
online on a subscription basis. The
online version is regularly updated with
new articles and revisions to existing
articles. It has 1,300 contributors
providing over 2,000 scholarly articles.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy –
combines an online encyclopedia of
 philosophy with peer reviewed
publication of original papers in
philosophy, freely-accessible to
internet users. Each entry is written
and maintained by an expert in the
field, including professors from many
academic institutions worldwide.

Philosophers
Lists of philosophers

Timeline of Western philosophers

Timeline of Eastern philosophers

See also
Outline of philosophy of artificial
intelligence
 List of important publications in
philosophy
Index of philosophy
Index of philosophy of science articles
Unsolved problems in philosophy

References
1. Jenny Teichmann and Katherine C.
Evans, Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide
(Blackwell Publishing, 1999), p. 1:
"Philosophy is a study of problems which
are ultimate, abstract and very general.
These problems are concerned with the
nature of existence, knowledge, morality,
reason and human purpose."
2. A.C. Grayling, Philosophy 1: A Guide
through the Subject (Oxford University
Press, 1998), p. 1: "The aim of
philosophical inquiry is to gain insight into
questions about knowledge, truth, reason,
reality, meaning, mind, and value."
3. Anthony Quinton, in T. Honderich (ed.),
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy
(Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 666:
"Philosophy is rationally critical thinking,
of a more or less systematic kind about
the general nature of the world
(metaphysics or theory of existence), the
justification of belief (epistemology or
theory of knowledge), and the conduct of
life (ethics or theory of value). Each of the
three elements in this list has a non-
philosophical counterpart, from which it is
distinguished by its explicitly rational and
critical way of proceeding and by its
systematic nature. Everyone has some
general conception of the nature of the
world in which they live and of their place
in it. Metaphysics replaces the unargued
assumptions embodied in such a
conception with a rational and organized
body of beliefs about the world as a
whole. Everyone has occasion to doubt
and question beliefs, their own or those of
others, with more or less success and
without any theory of what they are doing.
Epistemology seeks by argument to make
explicit the rules of correct belief
formation. Everyone governs their conduct
by directing it to desired or valued ends.
Ethics, or moral philosophy, in its most
inclusive sense, seeks to articulate, in
rationally systematic form, the rules or
principles involved."
4. Philosophia, Henry George Liddell,
Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at
Perseus
5. Online Etymology Dictionary
6. The definition of philosophy is: "1.orig.,
love of, or the search for, wisdom or
knowledge 2.theory or logical analysis of
the principles underlying conduct, thought,
knowledge, and the nature of the
universe". Webster's New World Dictionary
(Second College ed.).

External links
External links
Taxonomy of Philosophy – topic
outline developed by David Chalmers
as the category structure for the table
of contents of the PhilPapers
academic directory.
PhilPapers – comprehensive directory
of online philosophical articles and
books.
Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and
Names
EpistemeLinks: Philosophy Resources
on the Internet
Guide to Philosophy on the Internet
The Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
 The Ism Book
Introducing Philosophy Series. By Paul
Newall (for beginners)
Philosophical positions (philosophy,
movement, school, theory, etc.)
The Problems of Philosophy, by
Bertrand Russell (links provided to full
text)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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