Philosophy: definition, branches, representatives and characteristics

We explain what philosophy is, how it originated and who the first philosophers were. In addition, we explain its characteristics, branches of study and more.

Philosophy deals with the relationship between man and knowledge.

What is philosophy?

Philosophy is a academic discipline that works on a series of theoretical-practical problems through the use and invention of concepts and other interpretive, critical and transcendental tools.

The problems that philosophy deals with revolve around knowledge, being, existence, language, morality, life, art, truth, reason, the existence of God, the mind, politics and animality, among others. Each of these problems is worked on from a specific branch of philosophy. For example: epistemology, gnoseology, metaphysics, ethics, ontology, philosophy of language, politics, aesthetics, logic, philosophy of mind, theology and philosophy of animality.

Thanks to this methodological division, and because philosophy is a problem in itself, It is difficult to characterize it in a decisive wayA philosopher defines his practice according to which philosophical current he subscribes to.

However, and in its diversity, philosophy always embodies a unique way of problematizing the existential concerns worked onwhether through free reflection, a systematic methodology, conceptual analysis, speculation or even through dialogue and discussion as particular philosophical exercises.

Due to its own and particular methodology, the philosophy It is distinguished from other forms of knowledge such as mysticism, religion, science and mathematics. Even so, it is considered the basis of all sciences, since it has been the root and origin of the emergence of many other disciplines. In fact, many philosophers have dedicated themselves to more than one branch of philosophy, or even to other disciplines other than them.

From philosophers and scientists, such as Aristotle and Descartes, to theologians, such as Augustine of Hippo, or politicians, such as Massimo Cacciari (former mayor of Venice), philosophers They have brought their research and knowledge to different scientific disciplines already practical life, even expanding what philosophy is in itself.

See also: Philosophical knowledge

Etymology of the term “philosophy”

The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek philosophy (φιλοσοφία) and It is usually translated as “love of wisdom”. This word is composed of two parts: –philos (φίλος), meaning “friend” or “lover”, and –Sophia (σοφία), whose most common meaning is “wisdom”.

The root of –philos is the verb Philein (φιλεῖν), “to love”. There are numerous discussions about how this verb should be understood in conjunction with –SophiaIt is generally translated as lover or friend and, depending on which is chosen, the way in which philosophy is understood.

See also: Etymology of philosophy

History of Philosophy

The history of Western philosophy is divided into the following periods:

• Ancient Philosophy. From the 6th century BC to the 5th century AD, this period of philosophy is divided as follows:

• pre-socratic philosophy. Philosophy begins in the 6th century BC. C. This is the period before Socrates. His representatives are Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Thales of Miletus and Anaximedes.
• classical greek philosophy. It is the period of the great Greek thinkers. Its representatives are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
• Hellenistic philosophyIt takes place after the death of Aristotle and in the midst of the Hellenistic Wars, which marked the decline of the Greek polis. Its representatives are Epicurus and Zeno of Citium.
• Philosophy of late antiquity. It is the last period of Antiquity, in which we find the Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics and Neoplatonists. Its representatives are Proclus and Plotinus.

• Medieval Philosophy. It takes place from the fall of the Roman Empire to the European Renaissance, and is characterized by the marked religious emphasis (Christian, but also Jewish and Islamic) of its doctrines. Its representatives are Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury and Peter Abelard.
• Renaissance Philosophy. It is the period of transition from the medieval world to modernity, and it occurred between the 15th and 16th centuries. Its representatives are Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More, Michel de Montaigne and Francis Bacon.
• modern philosophy. It takes place during the 17th and 18th centuries, and its main debates revolved around epistemology. Its representatives are René Descartes, David Hume, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibnitz.
• 19th century philosophy. This period can be considered part of modern philosophy. The most prominent thinker of the time was Immanuel Kant, who wrote the Critique of pure reason.
• Contemporary Philosophy. This is the most recent trend, which began in the 20th century. Its representatives are Bertrand Russel, Karl Popper, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, among others.

More in: History of philosophy

Branches of Philosophy

Philosophy works with different objects of study, each with one or more questions of its own. Depending on the concern with which one works, philosophy is considered to be divided into different branches. These are:

• Metaphysics. Study reality, existence and being. Depending on which tradition one adheres to, one speaks of continental or analytical metaphysics.
• Gnoseology. It studies the way we constitute knowledge and experience of the world. From it emerges, for example, phenomenology.
• Logic. Studies the rational procedures and the modes of demonstration and inference, that is, the thought processes through which conclusions can be obtained from premises.
• Ethics. It studies moral problems, virtue, duty, happiness and codes of human behavior. It is divided into three levels: metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics.
• Esthetic. He studies beauty and art, trying to understand their meaning and rules of behavior.
• Political philosophy. It is dedicated to the theoretical study of human relations in society: power, structures, forms of government, etc.
• Philosophy of language. Studies language as a phenomenon: what it is, what its nature is and, if it has one, what its meaning is.
• Philosophical Anthropology. She studies the human being from a philosophical point of view. Although she is criticized for being educated in sexism, her main question is “what is man?”
• Epistemology. Study what knowledge is, its origin and the way in which it is obtained.
• Philosophy of mind. It studies mental parameters and behaviors in an interdisciplinary manner with some hard sciences such as mechanics or physics.
• Philosophy of law. He studies law and justice from a philosophical point of view, often crossing paths with political philosophy and ethics.
• Philosophy of animality. It is a recent and young branch, whose work is oriented towards animal studies and thinking about non-violent ways of coexisting with non-human natural diversity.

See also: Branches of philosophy

Main philosophical questions

Philosophy addresses various general problems whose analysis often depends on the historical and geographical context. Philosophy is not done today in the same way it was done two hundred years ago.just as philosophy was not practiced then as it was in the medieval world or in Greece. However, there are some questions whose answers have not yet been satisfactorily formulated, and so they transcend the era in which they were formulated. Here are some of them:

• The question of beingWhy there is something and not rather nothing is a question as old as philosophy itself. Since the beginnings of philosophy, philosophers have wondered about the origin and reason for everything that is. Among the many unknowns that the question of being awakens is the polysemy of the word itself. As Aristotle says in Book VI of Metaphysics“being is said in many ways,” and although after this statement, thinkers like Heidegger have said that the be fell into oblivion (by confusing the be with the entity), the question of being continued to be debated until today.
• The question of causalityThe relationship between cause and effect is also the question about time, about the origin of being, about the phenomenon. Causality maintains that every event X in time is preceded by an event Y. This is what is known as the “principle of causality”: every fact is the effect of a cause. The person who inaugurated the formal study regarding causality was Aristotle with Analytical secondsone of his treatises.
• The question for the truthThe question of truth brings with it a host of questions and concerns. What is truth? Does truth really exist? Can we identify it? Under what criteria? What does it mean for something to be “true”? Do we say that something is “true” in the order of language or in the order of events? Can an event not be true? All of these questions have been studied and discussed for a long time. Disciplines such as logic, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of language or gnoseology study each of the aspects of this question.
• The question for the good. Asking for the good is one of the most important philosophical questions. Thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine and Levinas have asked themselves again and again what it means to do good, what is its relationship with evil, what is moral and immoral, among other things. The question evolved in such a way that it went from being a concern for perfection and virtue to being linked to the existence of God and, finally, to the behavior of human beings in society, whether or not there is God behind it.
• The question of beauty. Asking about beauty is difficult and necessary. For Plato, beauty had to do with the realm of ideas and perfection. As time went by, the question about beauty moved to the field of the arts, mainly thanks to the work of German idealism and the Criticism of the trial by Immannuel Kant. Aesthetics is the discipline that is responsible for studying what beauty is, how it can be known and if, perhaps, it can be created.
• The question about God. To ask about God is to ask about the creation of the universe, to ask about its existence and its meaning. Has the world always existed? How was it created? Is there an absolute power outside the world? Or is that power within us and inhabits the world? Aristotle called the idea of ​​God the “prime mover,” because it was what gave impetus to existence. Along with metaphysics, theology is the discipline that studies what God is and what his possible characteristics are. However, other branches are also dedicated to working on the idea of ​​God. An example of this is the…