Portal:Philosophy/Branches

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Philosophy ponders the most fundamental questions humankind has been able to ask. These are increasingly numerous and over time they have been arranged into the overlapping branches of the philosophy tree:

• Logic: What makes a good argument? How can I think critically about complicated arguments? What makes for good thinking? When can I say that something just does not make sense? Where is the origin of logic?
• Epistemology: What is the nature of knowledge? How do we come to know what we know? What are the limits and scope of knowledge? How can we know that there are other minds (if we can)? How can we know that there is an external world (if we can)? How can we prove our answers? What is a true statement?
• Metaphysics: What sorts of things exist? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the relationship of the mind to the body? What is it to be a person? What is it to be conscious? Does God exist?
• Ethics: Is there a difference between ethically right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Do divine commands make right acts right, or is their rightness based on something else? Are there standards of rightness that are absolute, or are all such standards relative to particular cultures? How should I live? What is happiness?
• Aesthetics: What is art? What is beauty? Is there a standard of taste? Is art meaningful? If so, what does it mean? What is good art? Is art for the purpose of an end, or is "art for art's sake?" What connects us to art? How does art affect us? Is some art unethical? Can art corrupt or elevate societies?
• Philosophy of Language: How are sentences composed into a meaningful whole, and what are the meanings of the parts of sentences? What is the nature of meaning? (What exactly is a meaning?) What do we do with language? How do we use it socially? (What is the purpose of language?) How does language relate to the mind, both of the speaker and the interpreter? How does language relate to the world? (Courtesy of the Philosophy of Language wikipedia page)
• Political philosophy: How are political institutions and the exercise of power justified? What is justice? What is the proper role and scope of government? Is democracy the best form of governance? To what extent should the state be allowed to promote the norms and values of a certain moral or religious doctrine? When are states allowed to go to war? Do states have duties against inhabitants of other states?

The above classification is for the sake of convenience for beginners. With experience, the need for such a classification ceases to exist.