The Nature and

Scope of Philosophy

Meaning of Philosophy

The word philosophy is of Greek origin. Philos

means love and sophie means wisdom.
William James defined philosophy as a
stubborn attempt to think clearly. This
definition takes into account two things:
society and the individual.

Specifically, philosophy is to:

1. Attempt to give reason to the conception of the universe and

mans place in it. (W.P. Montaigne).
2. Include a world view of the conception of the whole world
and life-view or doctrine of values, meaning and purpose of
human life. (J.A. Leighton)
3. Achieve a comprehensive view of life and its meaning to
form the basis for the result in various sciences.(E.S Ames).
4. Be an activity of criticism and clarification. (D.J OConner).
5. Concern itself not so much with solving problems as with
finding the deeper meaning of the problems.
6. Search for a comprehensive view of nature, and a universal
explanation of the nature of things. (A. Weber)

Branches of Philosophy
There are four major branches of
philosophy:
METAPHYSICS
EPISTEMOLOGY
AXIOLOGY
LOGIC

METAPHYSICS
Metaphysics traces its origin back to
Aristotle who first introduced it as meta
ta physika, which means with the thing
of nature.

METAPHYSICS

Deal with the nature of being and reality.

Attempts to explain a persons most

fundamental concepts such as substance,

existence, essence, truth, space, time, causation
and the nature of God, as well as the origin and
purpose of universe, the nature and purpose of a
persons existence, the problem of freedom, and
other philosophical and universe entities
(Duka:1998).

Three subdivisions of metaphysics:

Cosmology is a branch of

metaphysics which tries to explain

theories, origin, and development of
the nature of the cosmos(universe).
It considers evolution and creation as
possible origins of the cosmos.

Three subdivisions of metaphysics:

Teleology tries to explain whether or not

there is a purpose in the universe.

Ontology deals with the meaning of
existence, and tries to resolve the
question of whether existence is identical
with space, time, nature, spirit, or God.

Epistemology

Originates from Greek word episteme,

meaning knowledge or science and

logos, which means the study of. Study
of knowledge.

This tries to answer fundamental

human question:

What is knowledge?
Where does knowledge come from?
How do we acquire knowledge of right

and wrong?
How do we know whether God does or
does not exist(Duka: 1998)?

Epistemology has its own distinct

subdivision.

Agnosticism claims that it is

impossible for a person for a person

to prove either the existence or nonexistence or non existence of God.

Epistemology has its own distinct

subdivision.

Skepticism is the doctrine that

claims that any true knowledge is

impossible or that knowledge is
uncertain.

Epistemology has its own distinct

subdivision.

Posteriori believes that experience

comes first and knowledge
afterwards.

Epistemology has its own distinct

subdivision.

Priori means knowledge can be

acquired through pure reason alone,

independently and perhaps, before
experience. Literally, it means
before-hand.