Branches of Philosophy
Six major areas of philosophical study.
Metaphysics
What is real? What exists?
The study of reality, existence, and the basic structure of the world.
Epistemology
What can we know? How do we know it?
The study of knowledge, including its sources, limits, and justification.
Ethics
What should we do? What is good?
The study of right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and duty.
Political Philosophy
How should society be organized?
The study of government, rights, law, justice, liberty, and the state.
Logic
What makes an argument valid?
The study of reasoning, argument structure, and correct inference.
Aesthetics
What is beauty? What is art?
The study of beauty, art, taste, and aesthetic experience.
Schools of Thought
Twenty-one philosophical traditions, each with its own way of answering the big questions.
Stoicism
Virtue through rational self-mastery and acceptance of what we cannot control.
Platonism
Reality consists of eternal Forms; the physical world is their imperfect copy.
Aristotelianism
Knowledge through observation; virtue as the golden mean between extremes.
Epicureanism
The good life consists of simple pleasures, friendship, and freedom from fear.
Skepticism
Questioning whether certain or absolute knowledge is possible.
Rationalism
True knowledge comes from reason alone, independent of sensory experience.
Empiricism
All knowledge ultimately derives from sensory experience.
Idealism
Reality is fundamentally mental or spiritual in nature.
Existentialism
Individual existence, freedom, and choice are the starting point of philosophy.
Phenomenology
Philosophy must describe the structures of consciousness and lived experience.
Analytic
Clarity through logical analysis of language and concepts.
Marxism
History is driven by material conditions and class struggle.
Classical Liberalism
Natural rights, individual liberty, limited government, and consent of the governed.
Conservatism
Inherited wisdom, tradition, and gradual reform over revolutionary upheaval.
Social Contract
Political authority derives from an agreement among individuals to form a society.
Objectivism
Reality exists objectively; reason, self-interest, and individual rights are moral absolutes.
Scholasticism
Rigorous use of Aristotelian logic to systematize and defend Christian theology.
Humanism
The dignity, potential, and centrality of the human being as the measure of knowledge and value.
Utilitarianism
The right action is the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
Pragmatism
Ideas are tools for navigating reality; truth is what works in practice.
Postmodernism
Skepticism toward grand narratives, universal truths, and stable meanings.