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MARIA ADESHOLA JONAH
COLLEGE OF LAW
PHILOSOPHY ASSIGNMENT
OLADIPO TEMIDAYO
THE SUMMARY OF CHAPTER TWO
UNDERSTANDING PHILOSOPHY AND ITS BRANCHES
This chapter gave more light to philosophy as two main things which are; philosophy as an
academic discipline and also philosophy as to solving particular problems and also help in
meeting human needs. There is total examination of philosophy with the various branches
through the different space of time many philosophers have out with so many school of
thought, hence the examination help to unveil the true nature of philosophy as an academic
discipline.
In this chapter gives the approach to the study of philosophy enables one to understand the
goals that progenitors of the discipline set for it and how the practitioners it is of the
importance to understand the practise the trade since its inception with that one can easily
see the revolution over time starting from the “Milesian philosophers” are Thales,
Anaximander and Anaximenes they mainly were about the basic constituent of nature and
explaining change in nature. Since this they were the first set of philosophers one should
note that their explanation were mostly either mythical, mysterious or they were religious in
nature, These Milesian philosopher generated ideas that were meant help people to
understand the nature of their environment in to order to relate with their environment
better. These Milesian philosophers in their aspiration to change in fundamental entity
making up thing differ for Thales it is water, For Anaximander it is Apeiron (infinite or
boundless), for Anaximenes, it is air. Things can be deduced about the nature of philosophy
from the way of Milesian philosophers practised the discipline by looking at their
environment through their seeking explanations to facts of the human life by thought.
The first to note about the basic foundation of philosophy is that it all starts with one thing
which is a wonder so as to give rational explanations to certain events which are puzzling in
nature, over time philosophers observe the nature of their environment to see problems in
their surroundings, then they give explanations according to their own very unique schools of
thought.
Every philosopher believes that his own theory has an influence on the practice and if people
allude to their ideas believes that theory has influence on practice and if people allude to
ideas generated in philosophy then they can have their actions or inactions guided by wellreasoned views. The importance of philosophy is to give a guidelines to the way of living,
philosophy is not a simple play of words but instead is a service provider of a broad
guidelines for perceiving, feeling and also transforming reality. There is also and also
transforming reality. It is a fact that philosophy is based on the authority of reason that is
respected in the discipline.
The branches of philosophy maybe divided into two main categories the cardinal branches of
philosophy and then philosophy as a second order discipline. The cardinal branches which
are listed in no particular order are; metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and logic.
Metaphysics it is simply deals with reality then asks questions about basic issues of reality
such as the existence of people and usually questions all the different stories of the creation
of man and universal these stories maybe regions or scienctific.In order to shed more light on
the true nature of reality metaphysics usually asks some questions like; what are the basic
facts of reality?, must there be the existence of anything at all?. To aid these questions
metaphysics has two sub branches cosmology and ontology, cosmology deals with the study
of the origin and structure of the universe while ontology deals with beings or the nature of
existence. Just like any thing it also has some problems such as cause and effect, change and
parlance. Epistemology usually asks the question of what is knowledge. how do you know
what you know?. It analyse issues and problems relating to the origin, nature, justification
with the limit if human knowledge. The problems of epistemology are mostly the clarifying of
knowledge, the true value of knowledge.
Ethics this is usually a debate with morality it is also referred to as moral philosophy .It deals
with moral rules that are meant to guide social relations among human as well as regulate
how human beings ought to relate with other living and non-living entities around. In order
to determine what is good, wrong or who should determine what is wrong or right will it be
God, society, or the individual? Ethics is also divided into sub branches metaethics,
normative ethics and consequentialist, methaethics it deals with the nature of our moral
discourse while normative ethics is concerns with developing theories that can be appealed
as to guides to people when making moral decisions. We also have consequentialist stand on
the outcome of moral actions to determine whether they are right or wrong. Applied ethics
refers to attempts to apply ethical theories to actual situations in life.
The last cardinal branches which logic it is mainly thinking, how does one think? how do
know what is argument? Those are questions asked by logic. Logic deals with the inculcation
of skills that are crucial for the construction good arguments and for evaluation of
arguments made by others. Now this helps the philosopher with rules that helps in the
process of reasoning. Philosophy as a second order discipline this branch shows that
philosophy is concerned with other academic discipline include physics, biology,
sociology,economics,English,law among other disciplines this second order differ from the
first order because in the second order it examines all the specific details of the above listed
subjects . In a final note it is believed that a person is philosophising whenever the individual
is engaged in a train of thought whose ultimate purpose is the criticism of certain vitally
important ideas in standard’s opinion. Philosophy is a school of thought in which every
individual engages in often and it all begins with a simple wonder.