Abstract: Philosophers find it necessary to decompose the general subject of philosophy into its various branches, in order to focus their analysis of philosophical problems of all kinds. Each branch has its own language framework and concepts unique to that little corner of the very large domain of philosophical literature and discourse. As you would expect, philosophical claims are free to crossover and blur the lines between several branches.
The following is my own taxonomy,
broken down into four general categories and twelve sub-categories, which
hopefully cover most of the waterfront.
Every serious student of philosophy should have their own version of
such a schema, the better to organize their thoughts.
1. Mind
– Study of the nature of the mind, i.e., the consciousness of humans and other
higher order animals. IMO, all roads in
philosophy start from the mind. That’s
why I put this branch first. As Rene
Descartes described the problem (my paraphrase), - What do we know with certainty
about our personhood, our minds, consciousness and very existence, before considering any sensory input?
a. Psychology and Neuroscience - What role do psychology, neuroscience, etc. have in describing and explaining the nature of the mind? What is knowable from correlation between observed behavior such as raw feels, and observable neurological activity in the brain?
2. Epistemology
– Study of knowledge, i.e., how we know about the world outside our minds, the
role of reason, the possibility of certainty, etc.
a. Logic
– Study of the nature of reason and general rules for its application to
solving real problems.
b. Science
– Study of the special rules for application of the scientific method to
solving real problems, including rules for description and explanation of
phenomena.
c.
Language – Study and detailed analysis of human language and how it affects consciousness, perception and the creation and use of knowledge.
3. Metaphysics – Study of the existence of the universe and its nature, often in support of the practice of physical sciences
a. Ontology
– Study of the nature of Being itself, including prime categories for analysis.
b. Time
& Scale – Study of the nature of time and how it is affected by the
enormous scale of the universe. A unique
set of puzzles
c.
Cosmology – Study of the possible antecedents
and causes for the universe to come into being, plus its evolution down to
the present. Many puzzles physics practitioners need help with.
4. Social
philosophy – A general category for those branches whose subject matter is
peculiar to mankind
a. Existentialism
– Study of the nature of mankind’s fundamental situation, each of us having
been “thrown” into the world without our consent, condemned to freedom and
faced with difficult moral choices.
b. History
– Study of the dynamics of human history, how and why it has proceeded in the
way it has, including predictions for how it is likely to unfold in the future.
c. Religion – Study of the possible spiritual realm of existence and how it relates to human existence in the world.
d. Aesthetics – Study of how and why humans assign beauty and ugliness to aspects of the world we live in.
e. Ethics and Law – Study of the possibility of reasonably assigning value, good or bad, to the actions of human beings, regarding their relations with others. Plus, useful methods for encouraging and enforcing ethical behavior by legal means.
