List of basic philosophy topics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For a more comprehensive list, see the List 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:
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[edit] Nature of philosophy
- Main article: Philosophy
[edit] Subdivisions of philosophy
[edit] Branches of philosophy
- Axiology {includes aesthetics (philosophy of art) and ethics}
- Epistemology
- Logic
- Metaphysics
[edit] Subdisciplines of philosophy
- Philosophy of education
- Philosophy of history
- Philosophy of language
- Philosophy of law
- Philosophy of mathematics
- Philosophy of mind
- Philosophy of perception
- Philosophy of philosophy (meta-philosophy)
- Philosophy of physics
- Philosophy of psychology
- Philosophy of religion
- Philosophy of science
- Philosophy of social sciences
- Political philosophy
- Social philosophy
- Value theory
- Philosophy of existence
[edit] Philosophical movements
[edit] Philosophical movements of the ancient world
[edit] Philosophical movements of the modern world
- The Renaissance itself, which aimed to revive Classical Greek and Roman ideas
- Rationalism, dominant on continental Europe following Descartes
- Empiricism, dominant in Britain following Hobbes
- The Enlightenment which drew attention to the importance of science and reason to human life
- French materialism
- German idealism, fifty years from Kant's major work through the death of Hegel
- Continental Philosophy
- Romanticism
- Utilitarianism -- Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill
- Marxism
- Existentialism -- Søren Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre
- Phenomenology Sartre, Heidegger
- Logicism -- Gottlob Frege
- Logical Positivism (with the Vienna Circle, Logical Atomism (Russell), and Ideal Language Philosophy (Wittgenstein))
- Analytic Philosophy -- Gottlob Frege, W. V. O. Quine
- Structuralism
- Modernism (more a movement in the arts, but worth noting for its connection with below)
- Postmodernism
- Poststructuralism
- Deconstructivism -- Jacques Derrida
- Pan-Africanism
- Negritude
The Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Romanticism are broader cultural "movements" that happened to characterised by fairly distinctive philosophical concerns.
[edit] The Isms (doctrines, schools, and principles) of philosophy
absolutism -- accidentalism -- aestheticism -- agnosticism -- altruism -- anarchism -- animism -- anthropomorphism -- Aristotelianism -- asceticism -- atheism -- atomism -- authoritarianism
capitalism -- Cartesianism -- christianism -- classicism -- collectivism -- communalism -- communism -- communitarianism -- conceptualism -- Confucianism -- consequentialism -- constructivism -- creationism -- cynicism
deconstructionism -- defeatism -- deism -- deontologism -- determinism -- dialectical materialism -- dogmatism -- dualism -- dynamism
eclecticism -- egalitarianism -- egoism -- emanationism -- emotivism -- empiricism -- epicureanism -- epiphenomenalism -- essentialism -- ethical relativism -- eudaimonism -- evolutionism -- existentialism -- expressionism -- externalism -- extropianism
fatalism -- fideism -- formalism -- foundationalism -- Freudianism -- functionalism
hedonism -- Hegelianism -- henotheism -- historicism -- holism -- humanism -- Humanism (life stance)
idealism -- ignosticism -- immortalism -- indeterminism -- individualism -- instrumentalism -- intellectualism -- internalism -- intuitionism -- irrationalism
legalism -- liberalism -- libertarianism -- logical positivism -- logicism
Marxism -- materialism -- mechanism -- mentalism -- meliorism -- modernism -- monism -- monotheism -- moral absolutism -- moral relativism -- moral universalism -- mysticism
naturalism -- necessitarianism -- neo-Confucianism -- neo-humanism -- neo-Platonism -- nihilism -- nominalism -- non-cognitivism -- nontheism
objectivism (metaphysics) -- optimism -- organicism
pacifism -- panpsychism -- pantheism -- perspectivism -- pessimism -- phenomenalism -- physicalism -- Platonism -- pluralism -- polytheism -- positivism (also: logical empiricism; logical positivism) -- posthumanism -- post modernism -- pragmatism -- prescriptivism -- probabilism -- psychologism -- Pyrrhonism -- pythagoreanism
Randianism -- rationalism -- realism -- reductionism -- relativism -- Renaissance humanism -- representationalism -- romanticism
scholasticism -- Scientific skepticism -- scientism -- secularism -- secular humanism -- philosophical skepticism skepticism -- social Darwinism -- socialism -- solipsism -- sophism -- spiritualism -- stoicism -- subjectivism -- syncretism
taoism -- theism -- theological noncognitivism -- Thomism -- totalitarianism -- transcendentalism -- transhumanism
For a more complete list, including definitions, see the List of philosophical isms
[edit] Regional philosophy
- African philosophy
- Eastern philosophy
- Western philosophy
- Analytic philosophy
- British philosophy
- Christian philosophy
- Continental philosophy
- Critical theory
- Czech philosophy
- Danish philosophy
- English philosophy
- French philosophy
- German philosophy
- Greek philosophy
- Hungarian philosophy
- History of western philosophy
- Integral theory
- Italian philosophy
- Jewish philosophy
- Medieval philosophy
- Polish philosophy
- Postmodern philosophy
- Roman philosophy
- Romanian philosophy
- Russian philosophy
- Scandinavian philosophy
- Yugoslav philosophy
[edit] Emergent philosophies
[edit] History of philosophy
- Main article: History of philosophy
- Ancient philosophy
- Contemporary philosophy
- History of eastern philosophy
- History of logic
- History of western philosophy
- Medieval philosophy
- Modern
[edit] General philosophy topics
- Analytic philosophy
- Continental philosophy
- Critical theory
- Eastern philosophy
- Integral theory
- Meaning of life
- Philosophy and literature
- Philosophical movements
- Western Philosophy
[edit] Basic philosophical concepts
- Below are basic terms of philosophy which are not covered above:
A priori -- A posteriori -- abduction -- absolute -- action -- action theory -- Age of Enlightenment -- ambiguity -- American Philosophical Association -- analytic philosophy -- analogy -- awareness -- axiom
causality -- certainty -- Cogito, ergo sum -- consciousness -- cosmogony -- cosmology -- continental philosophy -- creation
Dasein -- deconstruction -- deduction -- dialectics
emergent philosophies -- epistemic justification -- epistemology -- ethics -- essence -- eudaimonia -- evil -- evolution -- existence
Five Ws -- freedom -- freedom of religion -- freethought -- free will
happiness -- the Happy Human -- human flourishing -- human nature -- human rights -- hypothesis
Indian philosophy -- induction -- inference -- intolerance -- irreligion
justice -- justification -- justification of human rights -- justified true belief
law of non-contradiction -- life stance -- logic
meaning of life -- metaphysics -- morality
ontology -- origin beliefs -- original position
perception -- personal value -- perception -- phenomenon (a la Kant) -- philosopher -- philosophy -- practical reason -- Prejudice
rational choice theory - rationality -- reality -- reason -- Republic -- The Republic (Plato) -- right -- risk
scientific method -- self -- semantics -- social contract -- sophistry -- sovereignty -- speculative reason -- spirituality -- subject-- substance -- Symposium (by Plato)
tabula rasa -- theoretical reason -- thing in itself or thing-in-itself -- Thus Spoke Zarathustra -- tolerance -- truth
uncertainty -- Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- universals (problem of) -- universal (metaphysics) -- Urantia
vagueness -- validity -- value theory -- values -- variable -- veil of ignorance -- veil of perception -- Venn diagram -- verification -- verisimilitude -- vice -- vicious circle -- Vienna Circle -- violence -- virtue -- virtue ethics -- virtue theory -- virtuous circle -- vision -- void -- volition -- voluntary euthanasia -- voting paradox
War and Peace -- war and philosophy -- weakness of will -- Welfare -- welfare economics -- well-being -- well-formed formula -- well-order -- Weltanschauung -- Wheel of life -- why -- will -- will to power -- wisdom -- women in philosophy -- worldview -- wrong
yang -- yin -- yin and yang -- Yoga -- Young Hegelians --
Zeitgeist -- zen -- Zeno's paradoxes -- zero-sum
[edit] Influential philosophers
- Thomas Aquinas
- Aristotle
- Francis Bacon
- Roger Bacon
- Jeremy Bentham
- Confucius
- Democritus
- René Descartes
- John Dewey
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Epicurus
- Galileo Galilei
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Martin Heidegger
- Thomas Hobbes
- David Hume
- William James
- Immanuel Kant
- Soren Kierkegaard
- Laozi
- John Locke
- Maimonides
- Karl Marx
- John Stuart Mill
- Ernest Nagel
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- William of Ockham
- Charles Sanders Peirce
- Plato
- Ayn Rand
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Bertrand Russell
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Moritz Schlick
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Socrates
- Benedictus de Spinoza
- Voltaire
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
[edit] Philosophy lists
- Main article: Lists of philosophy topics
[edit] See also
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