T H HUXLEY - MEANING OF AGNOSTIC

 

Agnostic: "one who professes that the existence of a First Cause and the essential nature of things are not and cannot be known" [Klein]; coined by T.H. Huxley (1825-1895),

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

 

What is philosophy?

1 - The love of wisdom (Greek: philo - love, sophia - wisdom)

2 - Footnotes to Plato (428 – 347 BCE)

A.N Whitehead (1861 – 1947): “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them”. 

3 - The ‘queen of the sciences’. It interrogates the underpinning intellectual framework which is taken for granted in specific subject areas.

Main Branches of Philosophy

Metaphysics
(the study of existence and the nature of reality)

Epistemology
(the study of knowledge, and how and what we know)

Ethics
(the study of how people should act, and what is good and valuable)

Aesthetics
(the study of basic philosophical questions about art and beauty)

Logic
(the study of good reasoning, by valid inference and demonstration)
 
Political Philosophy
(the study of how people should interact in a proper society)

Philosophy of Mind
(the study of the nature of mind, consciousness, etc)

Philosophy of Religion
(the study of the nature of religion, God, evil, prayer, etc)

Philosophy of History
(the study of the eventual significance, if any, of human history)

Philosophy of Language
(the study of the nature, origins, and usage of language)

Philosophy of Science
(the study of the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science)

Philosophy of Education
(the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education)

(Image from Leunig)