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Divisions of Philosophy: Metaphysics Concerned with explaining the world. Namely, it is the study of being or reality. It answers questions such as: What is real? Is it natural or supernatural? Epistemology Studies the nature and scope of knowledge. Ethics Attempts to understand the nature of morality; to distinguish that which is right from that which is wrong. Aesthetics Ponders art and such qualities as beauty, sublimity, and even ugliness and dissonance Logic The study of criteria for the evaluation of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy among philosophers. Other Concepts: Nihilism Given its name by Ivan Turgenev in his novel Fathers and Sons (1861). Nihilism stressed the need to destroy existing economic and social institutions. Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nietzsche, Kant, Kierkegaard See wikepedia Ontology Branch of metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences.>>Ontology is the theory of objects and their ties. Ontology provides criteria for distinguishing various types of objects (concrete and abstract, existent and non-existent, real and ideal, independent and dependent) and their ties (relations, dependences and predication). Philosophers: Socrates 469 BC-399 BC Plato (428BC - 348BC), The Republic, 380 BC Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) - His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics. René Descartes (1596-1650) John Locke (1632-1704) Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) Søren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855) Friedrich Nietzsche, (1844-1900) Jacques Derrida (b. 1930) Portraits of Philosophers and Thinkers, Guillem Ramos-Poquí Christian: St. Augustinen of Hippo, The City of God, abt 410, . The Confessions, 398 Anti-Pelagian Writings St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 1265-1274: . Martin Luther, "Ninety Five Theses", 1517 John Calvin "Institutes of the Christian Religion", 1536. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, published in 1670 Friedrich Nietzsche, (1844-1900) Brian McLaren (1956-) See: Introduction to Philosophy at Methodist College Philosopy at wikipedia The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy at U. Tenn. Return to Mind and Ideas last updated 4 Feb 2006