Branches of Philosophy Essay

There are five types of branches in philosophy. These branches can be categories as Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics, and Estetics. The first branch of philosophy is Metaphysics, also known as the study of existence. Metaphysics act as a foundation in philosophy as well as the foundation of the view of our world. Metaphysics is very important to all of us as it help us to deal with reality by explaining and interpreting the world and nature around us. As you can see, without Metaphysics in our life, we will be unable to preserve our life as well as being ambiguous toward the information and knowledge around us, if this happen, we will have difficulty to live and comprehend the world. Therefore, Metaphysics is very important in our life. There are also some key elements of a rational metaphysics, one of the most important element would be reality. From a metaphysical side of view, reality must be understood perfectly and correctly because reality can be said as absolute and consistent. It has a specific nature independent of our thoughts or feelings. Besides reality, causality also play an important role in metaphysics. This is because everything happens for a reason and also an effect. Every entity has a specific nature and act according to that specific nature. Therefore, we can define that causality is means by which changes occurs, but the changes occurs depending on a specific nature. The next branch of philosophy is Epistemology, which is also known as the study of knowledge. This branch of philosophy is used to address the question â€Å"How do I know about it† as Epistemology is the study of our method or ways to acquired knowledge. It also relates our minds to reality by concerning how are they related to each other before determine whether these relationships are valid or invalid. Epistemology also encompasses the nature and construction of concepts. All mental things such as idea and emotion are also compasses by Epistemology. We need to have Epistemology in order to identify the true and false in our daily life and also the method or ways of evaluating certain things to acquired knowledge and experience toward the world around us. Epistemology is important because we will not be able to identify right from wrong as we are unable to think properly without Epistemology. On the other hand, we will be able to achieve our goal as well as acquired more understanding toward reality if we got enough degree of Epistemology. Flaws in epistemology will make it harder to accomplish anything. One of the key elements of a proper Epistemology is our own senses. Our five senses are valid and also are the only way we can gain information about the world around us. Besides that, logic help us to maintain consistency within our knowledge. Validity is determined by objectivity while concepts are abstraction of a certain details of reality. These are all the key elements for a rational Epistemology. Ethics, also known as the study of how a person acts in his daily life, is dependent on Epistemology because it is impossible to make choices without knowledge. From a fundamental point of view, ethics is a method or way to categorized and pursue our own values. Human needs Ethics to live. This is because without ethics, the whole world will become chaotic as all our action will be aimless and random as all of us are unable to decide a course of action. Ethics will not be able to completely help us to pursue our goal if rationality is ignored. We must all have a rational ethical standard at a certain degree which we are able to identify our goal clearly in order to accomplish our most important values. Every branches of philosophy have their own key element to achieve certain level of value. For ethics, it requires a standard of value to which all goals and actions can be compared to. The ultimate standard of value is none other but the value of our own lives. If a person is able to recognize his importance not only to his physical survival, but to his well-being and happiness, that certain person can be said to have a very good and proper ethics in his life. One of the subset of ethics will be the next branches of philosophy known as Politics. Politics can be defined as the study of how men should interact in a proper society and what constitute proper in life, in other words, it is the study of Force which answer the question ‘What action are permissible’. Politics can be applied to every single person or a group of people. A society is set up by Politics as politics tell how a person should act or behave within a certain society. Politics is very important in a society and even a country itself, this is because a political system in a society or country will greatly affect the individuals within that specific area. The people within that system are allowed to function or act according to the nature of the politics that is applied there. If the system is unable to work out, it will either collapse such as the Communist Russia or it will cause rebel such as in Czarist Russia. The main goal of Politics must be the faculty of reason. This is because reason is the main means of survival for a man as ones cannot survive in an ineffective environment. In a moral political system, coercion must be banned because reason does not function under it as man cannot be forced to think about what is right or wrong. Society cannot be forced to think, but, government plays an important role here as governments can objective laws and also monopoly retaliatory force to prevent one person from doing illegal things that might harm the society. The last branch of philosophy is also known as the study of arts and the sense of life which is called Esthetics. Esthetics also studies the methods of evaluating arts and also the judgment of arts itself. This branch of philosophy depends on the previous branches of philosophy which is Metaphysics, Epistemology, and ethics. It is important to study art because art existed through all of recorded human history. Human’s unique ways of thinking and evaluating makes art unique as well. A person ability to abstract the concept of art can determined the standard of one’s life as well as satisfying his personal intellectual needs. This is why Esthetics is very important as it delves into the reason why does art existed. The main key element of a proper Esthetics is none other than a person’s value judgment of the creator. With the field of ethics, these value judgments can be evaluated as well as observed because art is a selective recreation of reality.