Since philosophy’s concern is vast, we have to divide

it into different branches. Each branch will focus on a

specific area of philosophy. To understand the
branches of philosophy let us return to the three
central philosophical questions we explored before.
 METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with
the nature of existence, being and the world. Arguably,
metaphysics is the foundation of philosophy: Aristotle calls
it "first philosophy" (or sometimes just "wisdom"), and says
it is the subject that deals with "first causes and the
principles of things".
 METAPHYSICS
"What is the nature of reality?",
"How does the world exist, and what is its origin or source of
creation?“
"Does the world exist outside the mind?“
"How can the incorporeal mind affect the physical body?“
"If things exist, what is their objective nature?“
"Is there a God (or many gods, or no god at all)?"
 METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics is further subdivided into ontology which
studies existence as such and philosophical anthropology
which deals with the fundamental and essential
characteristics of human nature (Gotthelf and Salmieri,
2015).
 METAPHYSICS
Ontology (the study of being and existence, including the definition and
classification of entities, physical or mental, the nature of their properties,
and the nature of change)

Natural Theology (the study of God, including the nature of religion and the
world, existence of the divine, questions about the creation, and the various
other religious or spiritual issues)

Universal Science (the study of first principles of logic and reasoning, such
as the law of noncontradiction)
Existence and
Consciousness
 EXISTENCE
Existence (the fact or state of continued being) is axiomatic (meaning that it
does not rest upon anything in order to be valid, and it cannot be proven by
any "more basic" premises) because it is necessary for all knowledge and it
cannot be denied without conceding its truth (a denial of something is only
possible if existence exists).

"Existence exists" is therefore an axiom which states that there is something,

as opposed to nothing.
 CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is the faculty which perceives and identifies things that exist.
In his famous formulation "Cogito ergo sum" ("I think therefore I am"), René
Descartes argued that consciousness is axiomatic, because you cannot
logically deny your mind's existence at the same time as using your mind to
do the denying.
Mind and
Matter
Early debates on the nature of matter centered on identifying a single
underlying principle (Monism): water was claimed by Thales, air by
Anaximenes, Apeiron (meaning "the undefined infinite") by Anaximander,
and fire by Heraclitus. Democritus conceived an atomic theory (Atomism)
many centuries before it was accepted by modern science.
The nature of the mind and its relation to the body has also exercised the
best brains for millennia. There is a large overlap here with Philosophy of
Mind, which is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind,
mental events, mental functions, mental properties and consciousness, and
their relationship to the physical body.
In the 17th Century, Descartes proposed a Dualist solution called
Substance Dualism (or Cartesian Dualism) whereby the mind and
body are totally separate and different: the mental does not have
extension in space, and the material cannot think.
 Objects and
their Properties
The world contains many individual things (objects or particulars),
both physical and abstract, and what these things have in common
with each other are called universals or properties. Metaphysicians
are interested in the nature of objects and their properties, and the
relationship between the two
The problem of universals arises when people start to consider in
what sense it is possible for a property to exist in more than one
place at the same time (e.g. a red car and a red rose). It seems
clear that there are many red things, for example, but is there an
existing property of 'redness'? And if there is such a thing as
'redness', what kind of thing is it?
Any object or entity is the sum of its parts (see Holism). The
identity of an entity composed of other entities can be explained by
reference to the identity of the building blocks, and how they are
interacting. A house can be explained by reference to the wood,
metal, and glass that are combined in that particular way to form
the house; or it could be explained in terms of the atoms that form
it
Identity and
Change
Identity is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in
terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that
distinguish it from entities of a different type (effectively, whatever
makes something the same or different). Thus, according to
Leibniz, if some object x is identical to some object y, then any
property that x has, y will have as well, and vice versa (otherwise,
by definition, they would not be identical).
Aristotle's Law of Identity states that to exist, an existent must have a
particular identity. A thing cannot exist without existing as something,
otherwise it would be nothing and it would not exist. Also, to have an identity
means to have a single identity: an object cannot have two identities at the
same time or in the same respect. The concept of identity is important
because it makes explicit that reality has a definite nature, which makes it
knowable and, since it exists in a particular way, it has no contradictions
(when two ideas each make the other impossible).
Change is the alteration of identities, whether it be a stone falling
to earth or a log burning to ash. For something to change (which is
an effect), it needs to be acted on (caused) by a previous action.
Causality is the law that states that each cause has a specific
effect, and that this effect is dependent on the initial identities of
the agents involved.
 EPISTEMOLOGY
 concerns the nature of human knowledge and the way to obtain it.
 How do we obtain knowledge?
 Do we obtain knowledge by revelation, intuition, instinct or reason?
 Can we achieve certainty or are we doomed to suffer perpetual doubt?
 Is knowledge based on the things we perceive or from something else?
 This is the concern of epistemology which can be defined as the “branch
of philosophy that studies the nature and means of human knowledge.”
 EPISTEMOLOGY
The term “epistemology” comes from the Greek “episteme,”
meaning “knowledge,” and “logos,” meaning, roughly,
“study, or science, of.” “Logos” is the root of all terms
ending in “-ology” – such as psychology, anthropology –
and of “logic,” and has many other related meanings..
 EPISTEMOLOGY
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Epistemologists
concern themselves with a number of tasks, which we
might sort into two categories.
 EPISTEMOLOGY
First, we must determine the nature of knowledge; that is, what does it mean
to say that someone knows, or fails to know, something? This is a matter of
understanding what knowledge is, and how to distinguish between cases in
which someone knows something and cases in which someone does not
know something. While there is some general agreement about some
aspects of this issue, we shall see that this question is much more difficult
than one might imagine.
 EPISTEMOLOGY
Second, we must determine the extent of human knowledge; that is, how
much do we, or can we, know? How can we use our reason, our senses, the
testimony of others, and other resources to acquire knowledge? Are there
limits to what we can know? For instance, are some things unknowable? Is it
possible that we do not know nearly as much as we think we do? Should we
have a legitimate worry about skepticism, the view that we do not or cannot
know anything at all?
 COGNITIVE
METAPHYSICS EPISTEMOLOGY
BRANCH

The first two branches of philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, are called cognitive branches.
These branches provide a description of being (existence) and knowing. They are the foundations of
understanding any philosophical system.
 WHAT
SHOULD I
DO?
 ETHICS AND MORALITY
It is concerned with the last of the three questions central to
philosophy:

What should I do? Ethics tells us how human beings ought to

function as a human being. But in order to describe how human
beings ought to act we must first know what a human being is.
This is provided by metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics
and epistemology are the foundations of ethics
 ETHICS AND MORALITY
According to Ayn Rand “ethics or morality is a branch of
philosophy that provides a human being with a “code of values to
guide man’s choices and actions - the choices and actions that
determine the course of his life (Rand, 1964).” It is concerned with
the values man ought to pursue, the interrelationships of those
values and the means to obtain them (virtue).
 ETHICS AND MORALITY
Ethics is concerned with the good for human being as a human
being. If we apply ethics in a social context then it becomes
politics. The concern therefore of ethics is broader than politics. It
studies the “good” for human beings in any setting (whether
society is present or not). An individual who is alone in an island
still has to follow ethical principles if he wishes to survive (Peikoff,
1991).
 POLITICS
Politics is a branch of philosophy “which defines the principles of a
proper social system.” According to Rand “proper” means proper
for human beings which presupposes that one knows what a
human being is. Since knowledge about human being is provided
by the cognitive branches of philosophy, the foundation of politics
ultimately rests on
metaphysics and epistemology
 AESTHETICS
Aesthetics studies the nature of art. It is concerned with the
nature and the objective judgement of beauty.

Aesthetics may be defined narrowly as the theory of

beauty, or more broadly as that together with the
philosophy of art.
 AESTHETICS
Traditionally, the philosophy of art concentrated on its definition, but recently this has not been the focus,
with careful analyses of aspects of art largely replacing it. Philosophical aesthetics is here considered to
center on these latter-day developments. Thus, after a survey of ideas about beauty and related concepts,
questions about the value of aesthetic experience and the variety of aesthetic attitudes will be addressed,
before turning to matters which separate art from pure aesthetics, notably the presence of intention. That
will lead to a survey of some of the main definitions of art which have been proposed, together with an
account of the recent “de-definition” period. The concepts of expression, representation, and the nature of
art objects will then be covered.
 AESTHETICS
Aesthetics may be defined narrowly as the theory of beauty, or more broadly as that together with the
philosophy of art. The traditional interest in beauty itself broadened, in the eighteenth century, to include the
sublime, and since 1950 or so the number of pure aesthetic concepts discussed in the literature has
expanded even more. Traditionally, the philosophy of art concentrated on its definition, but recently this has
not been the focus, with careful analyses of aspects of art largely replacing it. Philosophical aesthetics is
here considered to center on these latter-day developments. Thus, after a survey of ideas about beauty
and related concepts, questions about the value of aesthetic experience and the variety of aesthetic
attitudes will be addressed, before turning to matters which separate art from pure aesthetics, notably the
presence of intention. That will lead to a survey of some of the main definitions of art which have been
proposed, together with an account of the recent “de-definition” period. The concepts of expression,
representation, and the nature of art objects will then be covered.
 A
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ETHICS NOMINAL POLITICS

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