Thursday, September 20, 2007

Recap/Expansion of Q&A 1

I would like to expand and recap my Q&A number one, as a slight, yet brief introduction to philosophy. It is evident that philosophy can be divided into many different sections. Traditionally, philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato divided philosophy into sub divisions such as ethics, physics, and logic. Philosophy is known as the love of wisdom, or the examination of our existence, knowledge, and ethics. I feel as though there are too many different layers and branches of philosophy to draw in a simple diagram. It is clear that everyone in class had their own views of how philosophy can be sub-divided. But it seemed as though we were able to somewhat agree upon a few different divisions. Ethics, logic, and meta-physics seemed to be most popular divisions.
Since the study of philosophy is never limited, I found it difficult to divide philosophy into distinct sections. I believe that all of our questions about our existence can be related back to the study of knowledge. Evidently, when I drew my philosophy diagram, I made logic the center of all the sections of philosophy. Ethics, politics, esthetics, free will, and all of the other aspects of philosophy could not exist without epistemology, or knowledge. So the question arises, is there definite lines of where philosophy ends and begins? Philosophy could be suggested as the study of everything that we have encountered in our lives as humans. It seems as though all of our different aspects in life and existence relate back to logic.

1 comment:

David K. Braden-Johnson said...

I think you've got the basic divisions right; and I agree: philosophy's subject-matter is endless. Philosophical speculation is merely an extension of our practical and scientific efforts to know and sustain ourselves in the world.