Main branches of philosophy

Traditionally, there are five main branches of philosophy. They are: Metaphysics, which deals with the fundamental questions of reality. Epistemology, which deals with our concept of knowledge, how we learn and what we can know. Logic, which studies the rules of valid reasoning and argumentation Ethics, or moral philosophy, which is concerned with human values and how individuals should act. Aesthetics or esthetics, which deals with the notion of beauty and the philosophy of art.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms: What is there?

What is it like?

A person who studies metaphysics is called a metaphysics or a metaphysician. The metaphysician attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which people understand the world, e.g., existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, and possibility. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to each other. Another central branch of metaphysics is cosmology, the study of the totality of all phenomena within the universe. Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. Originally, the term "science" (Latin Scientia) simply meant "knowledge". The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy. By the end of the 18th century, it had begun t