[Music]
hello I'm dr. Hannah Dale and I teach
philosophy at Mount st. Mary's
University in Emmitsburg Maryland this
video is about the branches of
philosophy now there is no one
universally accepted division of
philosophy into branches and you may
find as many taxonomy zuv philosophy as
there are philosophers but the following
fourfold division has been helpful for
me and from my classes I divide
philosophy into four parts according to
its subject matter
philosophers asked questions about and
debate theories explaining reality
knowledge values and the self the
classical names for these four topics
are being that's reality
truth that's knowledge goodness or
beauty that's values and man or the
human person that's the philosophy of
the self the names for these four
branches of philosophy are metaphysics
epistemology ethics or aesthetics and
philosophical anthropology it's
important to remember that these four
categories are not mutually exclusive or
absolute for example when Socrates
declares that the unexamined life is not
worth living for a human being he is
making a claim both about what a human
being is that is a claim in
philosophical anthropology and a claim
about how a human being should behave
that is a claim in ethics or to take
another example plato's theory of forms
is a metaphysical theory a theory about
what is real which is forms or ideas and
it strongly implies a certain
epistemology that is a way of knowing
the forms if the forms are immaterial
then we cannot know them using our
senses we have to use intellect and
reason to know them with that in mind
let's take a closer look at the four
branches first the branch of philosophy
dealing with theories of reality is
called metaphysics in metaphysics we
find philosophers using concepts such as
being becoming nature essence causation
space-time number and God metaphysical
questions that you will find dealt with
in philosophy include what is real and
what is apparent in our experience it
doesn't take too much reflection to
realize that things are not always what
they seem a certain metaphysical theory
might help us to sort out what is real
and what is only apparently real or what
is more real and less real in the
appearances that make up our experience
another metaphysical question is what is
ultimate reality or what is the ground
of reality is there some aspect of
reality which can help us to explain all
the other aspects of reality or
appearance here we would find a theory
like reductionism which would say that
reality just consists of atoms moving
through the void along with their
associated energy fields this turns out
to be a metaphysical theory it's telling
us something about what is real and
telling us that everything else that
appears to be real is simply explainable
in terms of those atoms and their energy
fields
that's a metaphysical theory that we can
contest we can make arguments for or
against it but what we're doing then is
arguing about philosophical metaphysics
here are some other metaphysical
questions are there any non sensible
realities are there any realities that
cannot be known through our five senses
there these might be ideas they might be
gods or divine beings and this would
then lead us to philosophy of religion
and questions of how how I should relate
to these divine beings and to other non
sensible realities the second branch of
philosophy deals with knowledge and
truth and this is called epistemology in
epistemology we find philosophers using
concepts such as truth doubt method
senses reason intuition and perception
if histological questions include how
can we escape skepticism can we know
anything or are we just doomed to have a
series of opinions what are the
boundaries of human knowing are there
certain things that are unknowable for
human minds
and what methods reliably produce truth
what is the character of truth it's
worth noting that much of modern
philosophy since the sixteenth century
has been devoted to working out
epistemological problems associated with
the knowledge generated by modern
scientific methods the third branch of
philosophy deals with values broadly
construed and is sometimes called value
theory it deals with how and what we
value more usually we speak of ethics
which deals with values of right and
wrong and aesthetics which deals with
values of beauty and political
philosophy which deals with values of
justice and the common good
so in value theory we find concepts such
as right and wrong good and evil virtue
and vice happiness or flourishing beauty
and justice and their opposites
questions and value theory would include
how ought I to behave how should I
govern my decisions are certain acts
obligatory or forbidden for me and on
what grounds how should politics in
society be organized what do I owe to
other people what is the nature of my
experience of beauty
what is art is art just any old thing or
are there certain standards for calling
something art lastly the branch of
philosophy dealing with the human self
is called philosophical anthropology or
sometimes philosophy of human nature
this branch especially concerns me I the
one making the philosophical inquiry the
one asking these questions what am i
what do the answers to these questions
and the other branches of philosophy
mean for me as a philosopher here we
find concepts such as self dignity
purpose self-knowledge freedom and
obligation questions in philosophical
anthropology might include what am I
what is the human person is myself hood
dependent upon my relation to others and
if so how how should I relate to others
including divine beings if there are any
am i free were determined in my choice
of actions
now a final word about the history of
philosophy simplifying someone I think a
good beginners approach to the history
of philosophy is to think of the ancient
philosophers and Socrates especially as
motivated primarily by a concern for
virtue and for how to live the good life
that is their primary focus was the
branch called ethics medieval
philosophers while they wrote and
addressed all four branches of
philosophy are most famously attentive
to metaphysical questions questions of
metaphysics dealing with the nature of
God and the question of the reality of
universals modern philosophers
especially Descartes and can't make
epistemological questions their primary
concern especially questions related to
the new knowledge generated by modern
scientific methods and in the 20th
century some philosophers have focused
even more intently on epistemology while
others turned to questions in
philosophical anthropology asking about
the nature of philosophy itself I hope
this has been a helpful tour of the four
branches of philosophy that I use thanks
for watching today goodbye
you