Branches of philosophy: the 30 most written about

Logic

Study of correct reasoning

The discipline that studies how to reason correctly, taking in informal as well as formal approaches.

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Ethics

Philosophical study of morality

Also called moral philosophy, the philosophical study of moral phenomena. It asks normative questions: what people should do, and which conduct is morally right.

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Epistemology

Philosophical study of knowledge

Also called the theory of knowledge, the branch of philosophy that studies what knowledge is, where it comes from and how far it reaches. It looks at different kinds of knowing: knowing that something is a fact (propositional knowledge), knowing how, as a skill (practical knowledge), and knowing through direct experience and familiarity (knowledge by acquaintance).

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Metaphysics

Study of fundamental reality

The branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature, or deepest structure, of reality. Traditionally it is seen as the study of features of the world that do not depend on the mind, though some theorists take it to examine instead the framework of concepts through which humans understand.

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Aesthetics

Philosophical study of beauty and art

The part of philosophy concerned with beauty and taste and with phenomena related to them. Broadly, it takes in the philosophy of art, which looks at what art is, at artistic creativity, at what artworks mean and at how audiences appreciate them.

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Political philosophy

Study of the foundations of politics

Also called political theory, the study of the conceptual and theoretical foundations of politics. It examines what political institutions such as states are, how far their reach extends and whether they are legitimate.

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Philosophy of science

Branch of philosophy

The branch of philosophy dealing with the foundations of science, its methods and what follows from it. Among its central questions are how science differs from non-science, how reliable scientific theories are, and what science, as a human undertaking, is ultimately for and means.

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Philosophy of language

Branch of philosophy

The study of what language is: of how language, those who use it and the world relate to one another.

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Philosophy of mind

Branch of philosophy

A branch of philosophy concerned with what the mind is and how it relates to the body and to the world outside.

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Historical materialism

Marxist theory of history and society

A Marxist theory of history and sociology holding that material and economic conditions are what chiefly drive the structure of society and historical change. First set out by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in the mid-19th century, it proposes that the way a society makes and remakes what human life needs, its mode of production of material life, shapes or determines the ideological, legal and political "superstructure" built on it.

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Eastern philosophy

Set of philosophies originating in Asia

The philosophies born in Asia's east and south: those of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, which prevail in East Asia, and India's, which prevails in South and Southeast Asia and also in Mongolia, Japan and Tibet.

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Chinese philosophy

Type of philosophy

The philosophical traditions that arose and grew within the history and culture of China, taking in systematic thought about questions of politics, ethics, knowledge and existence.

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Dialectical materialism

Marxist philosophy of nature and science

A philosophy of nature and of science that grew, late in the 19th century, out of what Friedrich Engels wrote. Combining Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's dialectic with philosophical materialism, it holds that the world is material, that every phenomenon results from matter in motion, and that the world evolves through a dialectical process driven by internal contradiction.

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Islamic philosophy

Philosophical tradition in Muslim culture

Philosophy arising from the Islamic tradition. Muslims have traditionally used two words that are sometimes rendered in English as philosophy: falsafa, covering philosophy together with physics, mathematics and logic; and kalam, a rationalist form of Scholastic Islamic theology that includes the Mu'tazilite, Maturidi and Ash'ari schools.

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Natural philosophy

Philosophical study of nature

Also called philosophy of nature or experimental philosophy, the systematic study, grounded in research, of the physical universe and nature, leaving aside any supernatural influence, up to the late modern period. Used from at least Aristotle until the 19th century, the term meant a branch of philosophy, then a broader word covering every rational field of study and contemplation, that dealt with subjects now counted as science, such as astronomy, chemistry, biology and physics.

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Social philosophy

Ethical analysis of social phenomena

The study and interpretation of society and its institutions through ethical values, not empirical relations. Social philosophers stress understanding the social settings of cultural, moral, legal and political questions, and building new theoretical frameworks, from social ontology and care ethics to cosmopolitan theories of global justice, gender equity, human rights, natural law and democracy.

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Philosophy of mathematics

The branch of philosophy concerned with what mathematics is and how it relates to other areas of philosophy, above all metaphysics and epistemology. Among its central questions: are mathematical objects purely abstract, or concrete in some way, and what is their relationship with physical reality?

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Philosophy of history

Philosophical study of history and its discipline

The philosophical study of history and of the discipline of history. The French philosopher Voltaire coined the term.

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Philosophy of religion

Branch of philosophy

In one definition, "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophers have discussed these subjects since ancient times, and they appear in the earliest philosophical texts known.

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History of philosophy

Study of the development of philosophy

The systematic study of how philosophical thought has developed. It concentrates on philosophy as rational inquiry built on argument, though some theorists also include religious traditions, myth and proverbial lore.

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Value theory

Systematic study of values

Also called axiology, the study of what values are, where they come from and what kinds there are. It belongs to philosophy but crosses into other disciplines, being closely tied to social sciences such as sociology, psychology, economics and anthropology.

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Renaissance philosophy

Period of European thought (1355–1650)

The philosophy of the period of the European Renaissance, roughly 1400 to 1600. It overlaps with late medieval philosophy, shaped in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by figures such as Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham, Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great, and with early modern philosophy, conventionally dated from René Descartes and his Discourse on Method, published in 1637.

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Metaethics

Branch of ethics

Also written meta-ethics, the part of philosophy that studies the nature, scope, grounds and meaning of values, ethical beliefs and moral judgments. Philosophers generally divide ethics into three branches: this one, applied ethics and normative ethics.

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Normative ethics

Branch of philosophical ethics that examines standards for morality

The study of ethical behaviour: the branch of philosophical ethics asking how, in the moral sense, one should act.

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Applied ethics

Practical application of moral considerations

The practical side of moral considerations: ethics as it bears on real actions in public and private life, in the professions, in health, technology and law, and in leadership.

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Philosophical anthropology

Branch of anthropology and philosophy

Sometimes called anthropological philosophy, a discipline of philosophy that asks what human nature essentially is. It takes up questions of the metaphysics and phenomenology of the human person.

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Theory of forms

Philosophical theory attributed to Plato

Also called the Theory of Ideas, or Platonic realism or idealism, a philosophical theory credited to Plato, the Classical Greek philosopher.

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Gnosiology

Branch of philosophy

In one definition, "the philosophy of knowledge and cognition". In Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy, among other settings, the word is often used to mean epistemology.

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Philosophy of education

Study of nature and aims of education

The branch of applied philosophy that looks into what education is, what it aims at and the problems it faces. It also examines the ideas and assumptions behind theories of education.

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Environmental ethics

Part of environmental philosophy

An established field of practical philosophy, within environmental philosophy, "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resources." Its main rival paradigms are theocentrism, physiocentrism and anthropocentrism.

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