philosophy

“Philosophy” means, “love of wisdom.” In a broad sense, it is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life’s most basic questions.

Academic philosophy is traditionally divided into:

1. Metaphysics
2. Epistemology
3. Ethics
4. Logic

In common usage, it sometimes carries the sense of unproductive or frivolous musings, but over the centuries it has produced some of the most important original thought, and its contribution to politics, sociology, mathematics, science and literature has been inestimable. Although the study may not yield “the meaning of life, the universe and everything”, many philosophers believe that it is important that each of us examines such questions and even that an unexamined life is not worth living. It also provides a good way of learning to think more clearly about a wide range of issues, and its methods of analysing arguments can be useful in a variety of situations in other areas of life.

Philosophy is such a huge subject that it is difficult to know how to break it down into manageable and logical sections. Perhaps the most basic overall split at the highest level is geographical, between Eastern and Western Philosophy (with, arguably, African Philosophy as a possible third branch at this level).