What Area of Philosophy Should I Study

One press picks an area of philosophy to study, with the question it asks.

What Area of Philosophy Should I Study

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  1. EthicsAsks what people ought to do and which behavior is morally right.

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How it works

Picking a course, an essay topic or a first book? Press the button for one area of philosophy, from ethics to the philosophy of mind, each with the question it asks.

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Go by the question

Each area starts from a question you may already have. What can I know is epistemology. What ought I to do is ethics, what makes reasoning correct is logic, what reality is at bottom is metaphysics, and what beauty is belongs to aesthetics.

A philosophy of something

Many areas take another subject as their object. The philosophy of science asks what separates science from non-science, the philosophy of mind how the mind relates to the body, and the philosophy of law what the law is and how it ought to be. If you already study a subject, its philosophy is a way in.

Questions and answers

What are the main branches of philosophy?

Wikipedia’s article Philosophy names epistemology, ethics, logic and metaphysics as the major branches. Its Outline of philosophy adds aesthetics and lists the rest, from the philosophy of language to political philosophy, under those five or under Other.

What is the difference between ethics and metaethics?

Normative ethics examines the standards by which actions are right or wrong. Metaethics studies the meaning of moral language and the nature of moral judgment itself. Applied ethics, the third branch of ethics, takes up real cases.

What is the difference between metaphysics and ontology?

Metaphysics examines the basic nature and most fundamental structure of reality. Ontology is the philosophical study of being, traditionally understood as the part of metaphysics that deals with the most general features of reality.

Is logic part of philosophy or mathematics?

Both draw on it. Logic is the study of correct reasoning and plays a central role in philosophy, mathematics, computer science and linguistics. The Outline of philosophy lists it as a branch and notes that it is also regarded as a separate formal science.

Which area of philosophy deals with art?

Aesthetics. It studies beauty and taste, and in a broad sense it includes the philosophy of art. The philosophy of film and the philosophy of literature are narrower areas within it.

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All 62 areas of philosophy

Knowledge, reality and reasoning 14

  • Aesthetics Asks what beauty and taste are; in a broad sense it takes in the philosophy of art.
  • Epistemology Asks what knowledge is, where it comes from and where its limits lie.
  • Ethics Asks what people ought to do and which behavior is morally right.
  • Experimental philosophy Asks what surveys of ordinary people’s intuitions can tell us about philosophical questions.
  • Formal epistemology Asks how logic, probability theory and decision theory can model questions about knowledge.
  • Logic Asks what makes reasoning correct and how a conclusion follows from its premises.
  • Metaphilosophy Asks what philosophy itself is: its aims, its boundaries and its methods.
  • Metaphysics Asks what the basic nature and most fundamental structure of reality is.
  • Ontology Asks what being is and into which basic types all things can be sorted.
  • Philosophy of language Asks what language is and how it relates to its users and to the world.
  • Philosophy of logic Asks what logic is, how it is to be defined and how logical systems are connected.
  • Philosophy of mathematics Asks whether mathematical objects are purely abstract and how they relate to physical reality.
  • Philosophy of space and time Asks, among other things, whether time and space exist independently of the mind.
  • Social epistemology Asks how human knowledge is a collective achievement and what its social side is.

Mind and the self 11

  • Phenomenology Asks how things appear in conscious experience, apart from assumptions about the external world.
  • Philosophical anthropology Asks what the essence of human nature is.
  • Philosophy of action Asks what causes a person’s willful bodily movements.
  • Philosophy of artificial intelligence Asks what artificial intelligence implies for intelligence, consciousness and free will.
  • Philosophy of color Asks whether colors are physical properties that objects possess.
  • Philosophy of happiness Asks whether happiness exists, what it is and how it can be attained.
  • Philosophy of love Asks what the nature of love is.
  • Philosophy of mind Asks what the mind is and how it relates to the body and the external world.
  • Philosophy of perception Asks what perceptual experience is and how it relates to knowledge of the world.
  • Philosophy of psychology Asks about the history and foundations of psychology, with questions of knowledge and of being.
  • Philosophy of self Asks what the self is and what it is made up of.

Right, wrong and society 15

  • Animal ethics Asks how nonhuman animals ought to be treated.
  • Applied ethics Asks what is right in real cases: in private and public life, the professions, health and law.
  • Bioethics Asks about the ethical issues raised by advances in biology, medicine and technology.
  • Business ethics Asks which ethical problems arise in a business environment and what principles apply.
  • Environmental ethics Asks what arguments there are for protecting nature and using natural resources sustainably.
  • Environmental philosophy Asks what we mean by nature and what its value is, to us or in itself.
  • Machine ethics Asks how machines that use artificial intelligence can be made to behave morally.
  • Medical ethics Asks which values should guide clinical medicine and the research tied to it.
  • Metaethics Asks what moral judgments mean and what they are grounded in.
  • Normative ethics Asks by what standards an action is right or wrong.
  • Philosophy of education Asks what education is and what its aims and problems are.
  • Philosophy of law Asks what the law is and how it ought to be.
  • Political philosophy Asks what makes political institutions legitimate and which values should guide political action.
  • Social philosophy Asks how society and its institutions are to be understood in terms of ethical values.
  • Value theory Asks what values are, where they come from and what types there are.

Art, culture and history 8

  • Philosophy of culture Asks what the essence and the meaning of culture are.
  • Philosophy of design Asks how design is defined and what it assumes and implies.
  • Philosophy of film Asks the most basic questions about film. A branch of aesthetics that overlaps with film theory.
  • Philosophy of history Asks about the meaning and purpose of the historical process and about the historical method.
  • Philosophy of literature Asks about the nature of the verbal arts and the issues that literature raises.
  • Philosophy of music Asks what music is, what its value is and what our experience of it amounts to.
  • Philosophy of religion Asks about the central themes and concepts of religious traditions.
  • Philosophy of sport Asks what sport is as a human activity, with questions of virtue and fairness.

Science and technology 14

  • Philosophy of archaeology Asks what archaeology is, why it is done and for whose benefit.
  • Philosophy of biology Asks about questions of knowledge, reality and ethics in the biological sciences.
  • Philosophy of chemistry Asks about the methodology and the underlying assumptions of chemistry.
  • Philosophy of computer science Asks the questions computer science raises, many of them close to those of the philosophies of science, mathematics and technology.
  • Philosophy of economics Asks, for one, what status highly idealized economic models have.
  • Philosophy of engineering Asks what engineering is, what engineers do and how their work affects society.
  • Philosophy of geography Asks about knowledge and method in geography and how space and place are represented.
  • Philosophy of information Asks what information is: its conceptual nature and its basic principles.
  • Philosophy of medicine Asks what medicine can claim to know and to explain.
  • Philosophy of physics Asks about the nature of space, time and matter and the basis of the theories of physics.
  • Philosophy of science Asks what separates science from non-science and how reliable scientific theories are.
  • Philosophy of social science Asks how social science fits together with the other scientific disciplines.
  • Philosophy of statistics Asks what statistics and statistical inference mean and what justifies them.
  • Philosophy of technology Asks what technology is beyond mere tools and how it differs from science and craft.