Philosophy sub-disciplines

As philosophy is a very wide discipline, it includes a huge variety of subdisciplines. This topic will introduce you some of main branches of philosophy.

Metaphysics

The main question of metaphysics is “What is reality like?”. Metaphysics studies the most basic concepts of reality such as existence, time and space, cause and effect connections. Ontology, which is the main part of metaphysics, studies general categories of being (Substance, Relation, Quantity and Quality).

Epistemology

Epistemology studies knowledge. It focuses on the problem of philosophical analysis of knowledge, true and false, belief and scepticism. The main topics of epistemology include: Philosophy of language, Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of religion, Philosophy of human nature, Metaphilosophy.

Ethics

The main question of ethics is “What should I do?”. Ethics studies moral duty. The main purpose of ethics is the systematization of knowledge about good and evil and the creation of concepts of moral life. Ethics as a subject consists of metaethics, which studies theoretical questions of ethics and moral, applied ethics, which works with specific problems in the area of moral, and normative ethics, which works on the creation of concepts of morality.  

Aesthetics

Aesthetics studies art and beauty. Some people understand aesthetics as the philosophy of art. Modern aesthetics works with questions such as “What is art?”, “What should be art like?”, “What is the fundamental difference between beautiful and disgusting?”. Aesthetics is very connected with cultural studies.

Logic

Logic studies сause-effect relationships and reasoning. Logic is the most “mathematical” part of philosophy, as it is used in mathematics, physics and  computer science.