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 religion) 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]
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 state of being and the nature of reality
Aesthetics[edit]
Aesthetics is study of the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and the creation of personal kinds of truth

 Applied aesthetics – application of the philosophy of aesthetics to art and culture

Epistemology[edit]
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. How is knowledge different from belief? What can we
know? How does knowledge arise? Can there be objective knowledge?

Ethics[edit]
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.
o Decision ethics – ethical theories and ethical decision processes
o 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.
o 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.
o 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
o Business ethics – individual based morals to improve ethics in a business environment
o Organizational ethics – ethics among organizations
o 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
Logic[edit]
Logic – the systematic study of the form of valid inference and reason

 Propositional logic
 Predicate logic
 Modal logic
Metaphysics[edit]
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).
Other[edit]
 Meta-philosophy
 Philosophy of education
 Philosophy of history
 Philosophy of language
 Philosophy of law
 Philosophy of mathematics
 Philosophy of religion
 Philosophy of science
 Political philosophy
 Environmental philosophy

History of philosophy[edit]
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?