philosophy
sweet&soft
difficult because various topics have been studied by philosophers at
various times. Ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and logic are
usually included. Other topics include politics, aesthetics, and
religion. In addition, most academic subjects have a philosophy, for
example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and
the philosophy of history.
Metaphysics was first studied systematically by Aristotle. He did not
use that term; the term emerged because in later editions of
Aristotle's works the book on what is now called metaphysics came
after Aristotle's study of physics. He calls the subject "first
philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says it is the subject
that deals with "first causes and the principles of things".[8] The
modern meaning of the term is any inquiry dealing with the ultimate
nature of what exists. "What's out there?" is a common way of
summarizing the nature of metaphysical questions.
Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and
whether knowledge is possible. "How do you know?" is the canonical
epistemic question.
Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', is concerned with questions of how
agents ought to act. Plato's early dialogues constitute a search for
definitions of virtue. Metaethics is the study of whether ethical
value judgments can be objective at all. Ethics can also be conducted
within a religious context. If the other two branches so far ask "What
is out there?" and "How do you know?", then Ethics asks "What should
we do about it?" Ethics questions are either concerned directly with
actions (normative ethics), or concerned with Good and Evil in general
(metaethics).
Logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic
logic) and what is now called philosophical logic, the logic of
language.
[edit] History of philosophy
The history of Western philosophy is often divided into three periods:
Ancient philosophy, Medieval philosophy, and Modern philosophy.
For a map with the dates and places of birth of most western
philosophers see here