Outline of philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by being critical and generally systematic and by its reliance on rational argument. It involves logical analysis of language and clarification of the meaning of words and concepts.
The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek philosophia, which literally means "love of wisdom".

Branches of philosophy

The branches of philosophy and their sub-branches that are used in contemporary philosophy are as follows.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is study of the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and the creation of personal kinds of truth.

Epistemology

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the source, nature and validity of knowledge.

Social epistemology – inquiry into the social aspects of knowledge.
Formal epistemology – the application of formal models to study knowledge.
Metaepistemology – studying the foundations of epistemology itself.

Ethics

Ethics - study of value and morality.

Applied ethics - philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment. It is thus the attempts to use philosophical methods to identify the morally correct course of action in various fields of human life.
* Bioethics - analysis of controversial ethical issues emerging from advances in medicine.
* Environmental ethics - studies ethical issues concerning the non-human world. It exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography.
* Medical ethics - studies ethical issues concerning medicine and medical research.
* Professional ethics - ethics to improve professionalism.
Discourse ethics – discovery of ethical principles through the study of language.
Normative ethics - study of ethical theories that prescribe how people ought to act.
Metaethics - branch of ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, statements, attitudes, and judgments.

Logic

Logic - the systematic study of the form of valid inference and reasoning.
Also regarded as the separate formal science.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics - concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it.

Cosmology - the study of the nature and origins of the universe.
Ontology - philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.
* Meta-ontology - study of the ontological foundations of ontology itself.
Philosophy of space and time - branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time.

Other

Philosophic traditions by region

Regional variations of philosophy.

African philosophy

Eastern philosophy

Middle Eastern philosophy

Indigenous American philosophy

Aztec philosophy

Western philosophy

History of philosophy

The history of philosophy in specific contexts of time and space.

Timeline of philosophy

Ancient and classical philosophy

Philosophies during ancient history.

Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy

Pre-Socratic philosophy
* Milesian school - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes
* Xenophanes
* Pythagoreanism
* Heraclitus
* Eleatics - Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus
* Pluralists - Empedocles and Anaxagoras
* Atomists - Leucippus, Democritus
* Sophists
Classical Greek philosophy
* Socratic schools
** Megarian school
** Eretrian school
** Cynicism
** Cyrenaics
* Platonism
* Peripatetic school
Hellenistic philosophy
* Academic skepticism
** Middle Academy
** New Academy
* Epicureanism
* Pyrrhonism
* Stoicism
Ancient Roman philosophy
* Middle Platonism
* Neopythagoreanism
* Neoplatonism

Classical Chinese philosophy

Classical Indian philosophy

Medieval and post-classical philosophy

Philosophies during post-classical history.

Christian philosophy

Islamic philosophy

Jewish philosophy

Judeo-Islamic philosophies

Post-classical Chinese philosophy

Modern and contemporary philosophy

Philosophies during the modern era.

Renaissance philosophy

Early modern philosophy

Contemporary philosophy

Philosophical schools of thought

Philosophical schools of thought not tied to particular historic contexts.

Aesthetical movements

Epistemological stances

Ethical theories

Logical systems

Metaphysical stances

Political philosophies

Philosophy of language theories and stances

Philosophy of mind theories and stances

Philosophy of religion stances

Philosophy of science theories and stances

Philosophical literature

General introduction

Blumenau, Ralph. Philosophy and Living.
Craig, Edward. Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.
Harrison-Barbet, Anthony, Mastering Philosophy.
Russell, Bertrand. .
Sinclair, Alistair J. What is Philosophy? An Introduction, 2008,
Sober, Elliott.. Core Questions in Philosophy: A Text with Readings. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall.
Solomon, Robert C. Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy.
Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy: The Basics.
Nagel, Thomas. What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy. Classics of Philosophy by Louis P. Pojman
Cottingham, John. Western Philosophy: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies.
Tarnas, Richard. The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View.

Topical introductions

African

Imbo, Samuel Oluoch. ''An Introduction to African Philosophy.''

Eastern

A Source Book in Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Charles A. Moore

Hamilton, Sue. Indian Philosophy: a Very Short Introduction.
Kupperman, Joel J. Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts.
Lee, Joe and Powell, Jim. Eastern Philosophy For Beginners.
Smart, Ninian. World Philosophies.
Copleston, Frederick. Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev.

Islamic

Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings edited by Muhammad Ali Khalidi
*

Historical introductions

General

File not found 2026-10-23. First published in Russian as Главные философские направления.
Higgins, Kathleen M. and Solomon, Robert C. A Short History of Philosophy.
Durant, Will, Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers, Pocket, 1991,
First published in Russian as Проблемы историко-философской науки.

Ancient

Knight, Kelvin. Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre.

Medieval

The Phenomenology Reader by Dermot Moran, Timothy Mooney

Kim, J. and Ernest Sosa, Ed.. Metaphysics: An Anthology. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Modern and contemporary

The English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill by Edwin ArthurEuropean Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche by Monroe BeardsleyExistentialism: Basic Writings by Charles Guignon, Derk Pereboom

Curley, Edwin, A Spinoza Reader, Princeton, 1994,
Bullock, Alan, R.B. Woodings, and John Cumming, eds. The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thinkers, in series, Fontana Original. Hammersmith, Eng.: Fontana Press, 1992 . xxv, 867 p.
Scruton, Roger. A Short History of Modern Philosophy. Contemporary Analytic Philosophy: Core Readings by James Baillie
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Thinking it Through – An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, 2003,
Critchley, Simon. Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.