List of basic philosophy topics

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For a more comprehensive treatment of philosophy, see the Lists of philosophy topics.

Philosophy is a broad field of knowledge in which the definition of knowledge itself is one of the subjects investigated. It spans the nature of the universe, the mind, and the body; the relationships between all three, and between people. Philosophy is a field of inquiry – the pursuit of wisdom; the predecessor and complement of science, developing the issues which underly science and pondering those questions which are beyond the scope of science. Basic topics in philosophy include:

Contents 1 Nature of philosophy 2 Subdivisions of philosophy 2.1 Branches of philosophy 2.2 Subdisciplines of philosophy 2.3 Philosophical movements 2.3.1 Philosophical movements of the ancient world 2.3.2 Philosophical movements of the modern world 2.4 Major doctrines, principles, and theories of philosophy 2.5 Regional philosophy 3 History of philosophy 4 Fundamental philosophical questions 5 Basic philosophical concepts 5.1 Western philosophical concepts 5.1.1 General 5.1.2 Aesthetics 5.1.3 Epistemology 5.1.4 Ethics 5.1.5 Logic 5.1.5.1 Fallacies 5.1.6 Metaphysics 5.2 Eastern philosophical concepts 6 Philosophers 6.1 Analytics 6.2 Classical philosophers 6.3 Deconstructionists 6.4 Eastern philosophers 6.5 Empiricists 6.6 Existentialists 6.7 German idealists 6.8 Logical positivists 6.9 Pessimists 6.10 Phenomenologists 6.11 Political philosophers 6.12 Pragmatists 6.13 Rationalists 6.14 Structuralists 6.15 Utilitarians 7 Philosophy lists 8 See also 9 Books 10 External links 10.1 General online philosophy resources 11 Philosophy template

[edit] Nature of philosophy

Main article: Philosophy

Inquiry

Meaning of life

Pursuit of wisdom

[edit] Subdivisions of philosophy

See also List of philosophy component types

[edit] Branches of philosophy

• Aesthetics - the study of beauty, judgments of sentiment, or taste. Aesthetics is closely associated with the philosophy of art.
• Epistemology - studies the nature and scope of knowledge and belief.
• Ethics - study of the right, the good, and the valuable. Includes study of applied ethics.
• Logic - is the study of good reasoning, by examining the validity of arguments and documenting their fallacies.
• Metaphysics - studies the state of being and the nature of reality.

See also: Axiology

[edit] Subdisciplines of philosophy

Ethics: Applied ethics Bioethics Business ethics Environmental ethics Genethics Philosophy of language Philosophy of mathematics

Philosophy of mind Philosophy of perception Philosophy of philosophy (meta-philosophy) Philosophy of religion Philosophy of science Philosophy of physics Philosophy of biology Philosophy of psychology

Social philosophy Ethnophilosophy Philosophy of education Philosophy of history Philosophy of social sciences Political philosophy Philosophy of law

[edit] Philosophical movements

Main article: Philosophical movement

[edit] Philosophical movements of the ancient world

Platonic realism Aristotelianism Pythagoreanism

Pyrrhonian skepticism Epicureanism (hedonism) Stoicism

Cynicism Neoplatonism

[edit] Philosophical movements of the modern world

Analytic Philosophy Continental Philosophy Deconstructionism (See also deconstructivism). Empiricism Existentialism German idealism Logicism Logical Positivism Marxism

Modernism (more a movement in the arts, but worth noting for its connection with postmodernism) Phenomenology Postmodernism Poststructuralism Pragmatism Rationalism Structuralism Utilitarianism

[edit] Major doctrines, principles, and theories of philosophy

Main article: Glossary of philosophical isms

Metaphysics atheism atomism christian theology determinism essentialism existentialism externalism fideism foundationalism idealism materialism mysticism naturalism nihilism monism monotheism objectivism (metaphysics) panentheism pantheism physicalism polytheism realism reductionism relativism solipsism subjectivism taoism theism theological philosophy transcendentalism

Epistemology, logic, & philosophy of mind absolute knowledge agnosticism functionalism formalism dualism dogmatism empiricism conceptualism constructivism deconstructionism intuitionism internalism instrumentalism logical positivism logicism mentalism nominalism non-cognitivism perspectivism phenomenalism pluralism positivism (related: logical empiricism; logical positivism) pragmatism probability psychologism rationalism representationalism scholasticism scientism skepticism vitalism voluntarism

Ethics, social & political philosophy altruism anarchism anthropomorphism asceticism behaviorism Buddhism capitalism communitarianism Confucianism consequentialism deontology dialectical materialism egalitarianism egoism emotivism ethical relativism eudaimonia evolutionary theory expression theory of art feminist theory historicism holism humanism individualism intellectualism legal positivism liberalism libertarianism modernism moral absolutism moral relativism moral universalism post modernism sophism stoicism totalitarianism utilitarianism Zoroastrianism

[edit] Regional philosophy

African philosophy Eastern philosophy Buddhist philosophy Chinese philosophy Confucian philosophy Hindu philosophy Indian philosophy Indonesian philosophy Iranian philosophy Islamic philosophy Japanese philosophy Jain philosophy Taoist philosophy

Western philosophy Analytic philosophy Christian philosophy Continental philosophy Critical theory Czech philosophy Danish philosophy French philosophy German philosophy Greek philosophy History of western philosophy Integral theory

Jewish philosophy Medieval philosophy Polish philosophy Postmodern philosophy Roman philosophy Romanian philosophy Russian philosophy

[edit] History of philosophy

Main article: History of philosophy

Ancient philosophy Greek philosophy Medieval philosophy Renaissance philosophy Age of Reason Age of Enlightenment 19th-century philosophy ("Modern") Contemporary philosophy

History of eastern philosophy History of logic History of political philosophy History of western philosophy Timeline of philosophers

[edit] Fundamental philosophical questions

Main article: List of philosophical questions

What is the meaning of life? Do we even exist? Does God exist? Do we have free will? Do we have a soul? How can we know when something is true?

How is a priori knowledge possible? The problem of universals. What is beauty? What is consciousness? What is freedom?

What is good? What is evil? What is just? What is real? What is the value of philosophy? What are time and space?

See also: Unsolved problems in philosophy

[edit] Basic philosophical concepts

Below are basic terms of philosophy which are not covered above:

[edit] Western philosophical concepts

[edit] General

deconstruction -- dialectic -- freethought -- know thyself -- life stance -- meaning of life -- perennial philosophy -- philosopher -- philosophy and literature -- pragmatics -- rationality -- reason (practical, speculative, and theoretical) -- semantics -- semiotics -- The Republic (Plato) -- rhetoric -- Thus Spoke Zarathustra -- universals (problem of) -- The Urantia Book -- Vienna Circle -- Weltanschauung -- wisdom -- women in philosophy -- world view -- Young Hegelians -- Zeitgeist --

[edit] Aesthetics

Main article: Aesthetics

[edit] Epistemology

Main article: Epistemology

A priori -- A posteriori -- belief -- certainty -- Five Ws -- hypothesis -- internalism and externalism -- justification -- justified true belief knowledge -- prejudice -- scientific method -- truth -- uncertainty -- verification --

[edit] Ethics

Main article: Ethics

action -- action theory -- bioethics -- business ethics -- eudaimonia -- evil -- descriptive ethics -- freedom of religion -- genethics -- good happiness -- the Happy Human -- environmental ethics -- human flourishing -- euthanasia -- freedom -- human rights -- intolerance -- justice -- justification of human rights -- medical ethics -- morality norm -- normative ethics -- original position personal value -- quality of life -- social contract -- Symposium (by Plato) -- tolerance -- Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- value theory -- values -- veil of ignorance -- vice -- violence -- virtue -- virtue ethics -- virtue theory -- voluntary euthanasia -- war and philosophy -- weakness of will -- Welfare -- welfare economics -- well-being -- wrong

[edit] Logic

Main articles: Argumentation theory and Logic

abduction -- ambiguity -- analogy -- argument -- argument, logical -- axiom -- deduction -- fallacy -- induction -- inference -- non-contradiction, law of -- reason -- validity -- Venn diagram -- voting paradox -- well-formed formula --

[edit] Fallacies

Main article: Fallacy

• formal fallacy

• informal fallacy
  • begging the question
  • false analogy

[edit] Metaphysics

Main article: Metaphysics

awareness -- absolute -- being -- categories of the understanding -- causality -- Cogito, ergo sum -- consciousness -- cosmology -- cosmogony -- creation Dasein -- essence -- evolution -- existence -- free will human nature -- irreligion -- I think, therefore I am -- nature -- noumenon -- object-- ontology -- origin beliefs -- perception -- perception, philosophy of -- rational choice theory - reality -- religion -- self -- sense data -- spirituality -- subject-- substance -- tabula rasa -- thing in itself -- understanding, categories of the -- universal -- veil of perception -- volition -- will -- will to power -- Zeno's paradoxes --

[edit] Eastern philosophical concepts

Wheel of life -- yang -- yin -- yin and yang -- Yoga -- zen --

[edit] Philosophers

Main article: Lists of philosophers

• List of living philosophers and academics of philosophy
• Timeline of Western philosophers
• Timeline of Eastern philosophers

[edit] Analytics

Main article: Analytic philosophy

Gottlob Frege George Edward Moore

W. V. O. Quine Bertrand Russell

Ludwig Wittgenstein

[edit] Classical philosophers

Main articles: Ancient philosophy, Classics, and Greek philosophy

Aristotle

Plato

Socrates

[edit] Deconstructionists

Main article: Deconstruction

• Jacques Derrida

[edit] Eastern philosophers

Main article: Eastern philosophy

Confucius

Laozi

[edit] Empiricists

Main article: Empiricism

Aristotle Thomas Aquinas Roger Bacon

Francis Bacon George Berkeley Thomas Hobbes

David Hume John Locke John Stuart Mill

[edit] Existentialists

Main article: Existentialism

Albert Camus Fyodor Dostoevsky

Martin Heidegger Soren Kierkegaard

Friedrich Nietzsche Jean-Paul Sartre

[edit] German idealists

Main article: German idealism

• Kant
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

[edit] Logical positivists

Main article: Logical positivism

Rudolf Carnap Berlin Circle Vienna Circle

Carl Hempel Ernest Nagel

Hans Reichenbach Moritz Schlick

[edit] Pessimists

Main article: Pessimism

• Arthur Schopenhauer

[edit] Phenomenologists

Main article: Phenomenology

Martin Heidegger

Edmund Husserl

Joesph Niedymeyer

[edit] Political philosophers

Main article: Political philosophy

Thomas Hobbes Karl Marx

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Voltaire

[edit] Pragmatists

Main article: Pragmatism

John Dewey William James

George Herbert Mead

Charles Sanders Peirce

[edit] Rationalists

Main article: Rationalism

René Descartes Gottfried Leibniz

Nicolas Malebranche

Benedictus de Spinoza

[edit] Structuralists

Main article: Structuralism

• Michel Foucault

[edit] Utilitarians

Main article: Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham

Henry Sidgwick

John Stuart Mill

[edit] Philosophy lists

Main lists: Lists of philosophy topics and List of philosophy topics (index)

Glossary of philosophical isms List of ethics topics List of topics in logic

List of topics in philosophical aesthetics List of philosophy journals

List of publications in philosophy List of philosophies Lists of philosophers

[edit] See also

Irreligion Life stance

Religion Science

World view

[edit] Books

Main article: List of publications in philosophy

Following are some introductions to and overviews of philosophy and philosophical issues:

• Blackwell Companion to Philosophy
• The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell (links provided to full text)
• A History of Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell
• A History of Philosophy, by Frederick Copleston

[edit] External links

Find more information on Philosophy by searching Wikipedia's sister projects
	Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
	Textbooks from Wikibooks
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Images and media from Commons
	News stories from Wikinews
	Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Philosophical positions (philosophy, movement, school, theory, etc.)

[edit] General online philosophy resources

• Introducing Philosophy Series. By Paul Newall (for beginners)
• EpistemeLinks: Philosophy Resources on the Internet
• Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• The Ism Book
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Guide to Philosophy on the Internet

[edit] Philosophy template