What Is Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What Is Philosophy - Essay Example What Is Philosophy? Philosophy has crucial areas of inquiry, which include epistemology, logic, aesthetics, metaphysics, specialized branches, and political and moral philosophy. Epistemology focuses on the scope and nature of knowledge using the relationships that exist between belief, truth and the theories of justification. Logic focuses on the doctrines of correct reasoning. In this case, logic is used in arguments where they use deductive or inductive reasoning. Metaphysics focuses on the study of the general features of reality based on time, existence and the relationships between the body, mind, properties and objects. Moral or ethical philosophy targets the best ways that humanity can live and coexist. Ethics has different branches, which include normative, applied and meta-ethics. Philosophical enquiry of aesthetics focuses on arts, beauty, enjoyment, perceptions, sensory-emotional values, sentiments and matters of taste. The specialized branches of philosophy target the philosophy of language s, mind, law, science, religion and Meta philosophy. Metaphysics Metaphysics occurs as a traditional philosophical branch that focuses on the fundamental values and nature of the world and beings. Metaphysics focuses on addressing two crucial questions, which are what is it like, and what is there? Previously, natural philosophy addressed scientific questions. However, the scientific methods slowly turned natural philosophy to an empirical activity that depended on experiments unlike other philosophical fields. This led to distinguishing of science from philosophy. (Munro 21). Later, metaphysics denoted philosophical enquiries of non-empirical characters to the natures of existence. Metaphysics centrally aims at addressing central themes and questions such as the nature of being. Additionally, metaphysics seeks to address the conceptual and empirical objects using objects and their associated properties, cosmogony and cosmology, free will and determinism, identity and change and mat ter and mind. Additionally, metaphysics addresses issues of spirituality and religion, time and space, and possibility and necessity. It is vital to note that metaphysics has different methods and styles. These include empirical methods coupled with rational methods. In this case, rationalism refers to a theory or method whereby the criteria for the truth are deductive and intellectual instead of sensory. Empiricism emphasizes on the fact that senses serves as the main sources of knowledge concerning the world and universe. In addition to these methods and styles, other styles exist such as systemic versus analytical, dogmatic versus critical, individual versus collective and parsimonious versus adequate. The systemic approach focuses on answering all crucial questions in a coherent and comprehensive manner, and the analytical approach deals with the problems in a piecemeal fashion. Crucial Meta physicists who used the different styles and methods of metaphysics include Plato and So crates, Aristotle and Immanuel Kant among others (Munro 31). Epistemology Epistemology focuses on the scope and nature of knowledg