Six Branches of Philosophy

Six Branches of Philosophy

Alexander Anaya Ashe

American Intercontinental University

August 2^nd 2015

Six Branches of Philosophy

   Philosophy is the maturation of our ideas about our beliefs and mindsets we hold of ourselves as well as our world. Philosophy is such a broad subject; it can question literally anything at all. Branches of philosophy where created by scholars and though these branches are very much each a specific subject of their own, philosophical discussions will most often begin in one branch and progress to and from the others. There are six branches of philosophy which are metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, and political philosophy.

Metaphysics is the first branch of philosophy which questions the most basic principles of life such as mind, soul, and the ultimate question of existence.

To question such things you must first question what is actually real? “that we can never

know—or at least we can never be sure that we know—the world at all…

If anything is to be true, it must be true by reference to the facts and objects of the world, or it must be true as a “truth of reason.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. Pg. 158 para. 1)

I agree and feel as though what I know as fact through my own knowledge of science and mathematics, I cannot disprove that my reality is any more or less real than what any other person experiences as real. This raises the question of the physical world being more or less real than the spiritual or psychological world?  To which I respond, that reality is subjective to what a person believes to be true, not because reality has been proven nor disproven at this time.

Other questions such as do all people have free will, or are their lives determined by fate?

To this I respond that the question of free will or faith is subjective to a person’s religious or spiritual beliefs.
While metaphysics is the most basic of philosophies it is not shallow or easy. It does attempt to question the deepest and still un-answerable questions to this day, like is there such a thing as a soul?

“Epistemology is the second branch of philosophy, “the study of knowledge” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. Pg. 7). Epistemology questions; how is anything known? To which philosophers have created two schools of thought one based on innate reasoning the other based on experience. I feel as though it is a little of both, though if I had to choose I mostly agree with John Locke; “whether inspired by God, radiated by -Forms,- built into the structure of our minds, or - born into - our brains (that is, innate). Experience might provide some of the material for our thinking, as well as some clues and perhaps the trigger to the answer, but experience cannot by itself, according to the rationalists, teach us anything at all. Truth is not subject to the vicissitudes of experience.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg 153) According to philosophy everything is subjective but there are some universal truths such as Mathematics. “A statement that is true because of the facts is called an empirical truth.” and “Necessary truth: 2 + 2 = 4. Necessary truths cannot possibly be false, nor can we imagine circumstances in which they might be false.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg. 149 para. 1) These truths lead us to questioning the relationship between faith and reason and because faith is constructed from your own reasoning. If your reasoning tells you that you can walk on water based on facts you believe to be true, than you have faith that you can walk on water. With that said, we leave epistemology with the idea that there are no limits to human understanding, only limits to accessibility of information as well as the understanding of the information presented.

The third branch of philosophy is Ethics; the systematic study of how people are supposed to behave toward themselves and other people (American InterContinental University [AIU], 2015). This branch asks questions such as does virtue lead to happiness? In which case it would be sensible to refer to other ideas of philosophy such as what is happiness and because happiness is different for different people living a virtuous life does not guarantee happiness. As is the nature of philosophy this leads us to another question. Do the ends justify the means, or is a virtuous action virtuous in and of itself? This question can be argued as being a very broad question and is very subjective to the situation. It falls under the same subject as; is stealing wrong if your family is starving? Some may say it is still wrong, some may say it is ok because the ends justify the means. But now imagine at the same time, if the shop employee lost his job because you stole? As stated before, everything is subjective to the situation. Now you may say what does that mean about morality in humans?
How does living in a society affect morality? To which I answer that living in society only affects morality if a person cares about or interacts with society. So does that mean that morality is culturally based, individually based, or is there a universal morality? My response is that morality is culturally based, determined by what society deems as normal and productive behavior.

Aesthetics is the study of art and beauty. It examines the art and beauty of individual experiences and attempts to define what the nature of art, beauty, and taste mean to the individual. Aesthetics also explores the possibility that such an experience could be either universal or unique to the individual. (AIU, 2015) So then what is beautiful? “Beauty is its own kind of truth, even the ultimate truth…” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. p.364 par. 2)

So does Keats mean that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, or are there some things that all cultures find beautiful? It must be in the eye of the beholder for “as different cultures have very different ideas about the nature of reality, so, too, their arts may differ.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg 365 p 1) So if beauty is relative, then what is the purpose of art? To which the reading defines art as a revelation of the “deep truths about the world, perhaps even truths that cannot be articulated by science or philosophy.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg. 364-365 p. 1) So in short art is man’s attempt to capture the essence of what cannot be explained. This is why love has always and will always be a leading theme in the arts.

Political philosophy is an exploration of how to combine and balance individual freedoms with governmental regulation of the society’s economic systems. (AIU, 2015) Longstanding philosophical debates over who should be in power, what is the best kind of government, and how much power should that government have never been determined for a real society.  This is because people are not perfect, nor are they all the same. As in the debate over what is happiness, the answer to this question would also be different for all cultures and even possibly different for each group of individuals according to their mindsets. “Who the leader is… will depend on the nature of the society.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg 293 para 1) Now as for how involved should the common citizen be in government depends on the type of government as well as on the type of people. Is this an intelligent society, or a society of warriors? Warriors would probably not make good decisions on public affairs as would scholars most likely not provide the best battle strategies. So what is the best type of government for all? That question again is still unanswered, but I do feel as though Thomas Jefferson had it close when he stated “That gov’t is best which governs least.” (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg 294 para 2). To compare these ideas to another aspect of life; a parent who makes all of their child’s decisions will raise a child who does not know how to think for themselves. So this leads us to question how much power should the government have? To which again there has been no definitive answer to date. Some believe anarchy is what the people need, others believe that a totalitarian rule is the only way to create true order, and some believe the answer lies somewhere in between. So for now, the same as past philosophers, we can only dream of utopian governments that lay somewhere in between control and freedom.

           

            Lastly I will discuss Social philosophy; “the study and interpretation of society and social institutions in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations.” (AIU, 2015) Social Philosophy is more about the people than the control of said people. Inviting questions such as; how should humans behave in a society? “what the Greeks had in mind, of course, was the idea that, to live a good life one had to live in a good community—one in which people respected one another and obeyed the rules, one that flourished and was not overwhelmed with problems of crime and poverty, one in which the happiness of one person was not to be gained at the expense of others”. (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg 290 para 2) So in short to treat others as you wish to be treated is the answer to this overcomplicated notion. Now to do so does this suggest that people give up certain rights when they choose to live in a society? If it is my opinion, I answer yes they must. It has been proven by history that anarchy does not provide a stable or fair society. To govern people, the people cannot have complete freedom; otherwise you would not be governing the people. Now when individual’s social values come into play, you must question how this will affect their own beliefs? It will affect how a person perceives the world, decides what is right or wrong and immoral or just. Their beliefs are ruled by what they experience as well as what their society teaches them. (Solomon, Higgins, 2014. pg 292) This idea is amplified when people are together, people will often behave differently in a crowd than they would individually bringing into the picture the famous quote “An individual is smart, people are stupid.” (Unknown, N.D.) In short, this references the fact that people can be intelligent when making their own decisions but the mob mentality can breed many poor ideas.

   Philosophy and its six branches of; metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, and political philosophy will continue to play a role throughout history. Though the details of issues we face may change, the urge to question everything will always remain, as it is and always will be human nature to ask “why?”.

References

American InterContinental University. (2014). Introduction to philosophy: Why Study Philosophy? [intellipath]. Retrieved from American InterContinental University Virtual Campus, PHIL201-1503A-03: https://adapt.careered.com/RealiseIT/Main/LearnerSkin.aspx/1/15/eMyLearning_-1_7239041_-1_-6/

Solomon., and Higgins. The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, 9th Edition. Cengage Learning, 2014. VitalBook file. https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781133610649