11 most important branches of PHILOSOPHY

In today's class we are going to study the branches of philosophy, one of the older disciplines of the history that takes place in Ancient Greece and extends to the present day.

Thus, philosophy stands as a discipline alive, active and in constant evolution. This is why, throughout history, it has been divided into different branches, giving rise to different areas of study, such as: political philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of aesthetics, philosophy of religion, ethics, logic, epistemology or metaphysics.

If you want to know and study the branches of philosophy, keep reading because in a PROFESOR we explain everything to you.

Index

1. What is philosophy?
2. When was philosophy born? Origin
3. Ethics, one of the main branches of philosophy
4. Metaphysics, another of the most outstanding philosophical branches
5. Epistemology
6. epistemology
7. Logic
8. The philosophy of language
9. Other branches of philosophy

Before studying the branches of philosophy, we must be clear about what philosophy is. In this way, we have to go to the etymology of the word itself, which comes from the Greek

Likewise, it has been established that the first to coin and use this term was Pythagoras to refer to a logical and scientific reasoning that gave answers to the great dilemmas from reason. In other words, it moves away from mythological/religious thought.

In this way, today philosophy can be defined as a set of reflections and knowledge of holistic, critical and analytical character what you're trying answer various questions as the nature of being, knowledge, truth, nature or reality.

Finally, the RAE defines it as follows:

"Set from knowledge what search set up, from way rational, the beginning plus general what organize Y orient the knowledge from the reality, So What the sense of the act human."

Traditionally, it has been established that the origin of philosophy It is in Miletus (Greece), in the S.VII a. c. and from the hand of Thales of Miletus. However, his own Thales, Pythagoras, Aristotle or Plato, will define Egypt as the place of philosophy, of knowledge and wisdom.

Specifically, it talks about the egyptian priests as the first sages in history, the holders of scientific and philosophical knowledge who developed the first texts close to philosophy (The texts sapiential or teaching of Ancient Egypt). For example: A man's dispute with his Ba (soul)-Berlin Papyrus 3024, written around 1900 BC. c. In this text we are told about a man who is tired of living, who is between life and death, and who enters into a dialogue with his soul (Ba) to debate whether it is better to live or die.

However, when we talk about western Philosophy, its origin we place it in Ancient Greece from S.VII to C. A moment in which a series of historical and geographical circumstances occurred that determined the possibility of changing the way of answering transcendental questions:

1. Greece was a trading town: What made possible contact with other peoples and cultures with other ways of understanding the world.
2. The political structure of Greece (small city-states): In some of these city-states there would be a certain freedom of thought.
3. The emergence of wealthy social classes economically and idle people who did not need to work in order to live, which allowed for pure reflection.

These reasons made possible the birth of a freer thought and based on reason, out of the mythical answers without rational background and that was developed throughout history through different branches or areas of study.

Next, we will explain the most important branches of philosophy.

The ethicsIt is a branch of philosophy or area that studies and determines the set of guidelines or rules that people use as a guide for conduct in all aspects of their lives. Thus, Ethics establishes the behavior that human beings must follow and respect in order to live in peace with ourselves and with those around us.

Also, it is directly linked to the moral or the social principles on which each person shapes their way of behaving within a community. That is to say, those socially determined values ​​according to which we judge that a thing is good or bad. wrong, right or wrong, and from there we act one way or another, depending on correspond.

Within this branch, the moral intellectualism fromSocrates, which, part of the Socratic idea that tells us that knowledge is the greatest of virtues and ignorance the greatest of vices and, therefore, evil is the absence of knowledge of good and the result of ignorance.

Metaphysics comes from the Latin word metaphysicwhat does it mean “Beyond Physics”. That is, metaphysics focuses on studying the structure/the principles of reality and the notions from which the individual understands what surrounds him. All this, through the analysis of concepts such as origin, time, object, space, cosmos or causality.

Within this branch, philosophers such as Plato, Boethius, Locke or Leibniz. But above all, it highlights the theory of Aristotle which states that everything that exists is composed of ten elements fundamentally divided into two groups:

• the substance: The authentic being, which exists by itself and is made up of matter and form (Indissoluble).
• The accidents: They are elements that change, such as: time, place, position, action, situation, passion or quality.

The epistemology is another of the branches of philosophy and has its origin in with philosophers Parmenides, Plato either Aristotle. But it did not develop as a science until the Renaissance and today it is known as theory of knowledge.

This philosophical branch focuses on analyze and study knowledge in general, that is, its origin, its nature and the circumstances that lead to the creation of scientific knowledge. Therefore, he understands knowledge as a relationship between a subject and an object.

In this sense, it stands out Plato's ontological dualism, who establishes that true knowledge is linked to scientific knowledge and developed in the intelligible world (where ideas are located).

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Epistemology is similar to epistemology, in that it also study knowledge. However, epistemology focuses on studying its nature, origin, development and its limits.

Within this branch stand out the books Teetus and the Book VI of the Republic of Plato or De Anima and the fourth book of Metaphysics of Aristotle. For the first, it is only possible to get authentic knowledge of the ideas, for the second, the only thing that can be known are the substances.

Likewise, in the 17th century, the empiricists stand out John Locke, David Hume Y George Berkeley. Which, defend that everything knowledge comes from sensory experience (from the data of the senses) and that the origin and scope of it is in experience: the existence of innate ideas in the human mind.

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The logic It is another of the main branches of philosophy. It is a science that studies structure of human thought and is responsible for creating schemes of knowledge or reasoning that help us understand our world through laws or principles leading us to a valid conclusion. That is, it can be said that philosophical logic is one that applies logical methods (demonstrations, paradoxes or inference) to philosophical problems.

Indeed, one of the first philosophers to develop logic was Aristotle with his aristotelian logic. Which is based on understanding the functioning of things through the observation, practice and reasoning, through the principles of validity/valid reasoning and invalidity/invalid reasoning to reach specific conclusions.

The philosophy of language focuses on studying the connection between natural language, thought, reality-world, the use of language and its limits. That is, the relationship between theword/concept-reality-mind. All this discarding the scientific method and focusing on the logical-conceptual analysis.

Thus, one of the first philosophers to pay attention to language was Plato (If you. C.) in his work Cratylus. In which he reflects on the origin of language and on the conventionality of words, establishing that the language is not a convention, that it has a connection with reality and that the words/names are not a coincidence.

However, the philosophy of language as we know it today developed in the early 19th century. 20th century in the US and England, with philosophers like: Bertrand Russell, Geoffrey Leech, Frank Ramsey either Ludwig Wittgenstein.

In addition to the branches that we have already explained to you, within the philosophy They also highlight:

1. The philosophy of aesthetics. This branch of philosophy is responsible for studying the perception of beauty and its qualities, of what we perceive as ugly or beautiful (= aesthetic judgments). Within it, the author highlights Walter Benjamin and his concept of aura: That which only and exclusively have the original artwork (a painting, a sculpture, a book...) and that is tied to the here and now, that is to say, that the work has a certain space and time that is developed from its creation, having a space-time journey.
2. political philosophy. Study and analyze the political actors, political systems, their structures and the relationship that the individual has with them. Within this branch, we owe one of the first analyzes to Plato and his five forms of government. Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy and Tyranny.
3. Philosophy of mind. She is in charge of studying the cognitive and emotional processes that occur in our mind: desires, dreams, fears, fantasies or memory. Within this discipline, the personality theory ofFreud.
4. Philosophy of religion. This branch of philosophy reflects on how the individual and the communities create a divine entity, that is, it studies how the human being lives spirituality and how he connects with it.
5. Philosophy of science. study and reflect on scientific knowledge, practice and scientific methodology. As well as, the origin, development and limits of science.

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Antiseri and Reale. History of Philosophy. Vol. 1 and 2. Ed. Herder. 2010