The little book of philosophy

New ideas emerge through discussion and the explanation analysis and criticism of other people's ideas. Philosophy is device of dialogues to present their ideas, giving arguments and counter arguments rather than a simple statement of their reasoning and conclusion. The first question that occupied these early philosophers was, what is the universe made of which was soon expanded to become the wider question of what is the nature of whatever it is that exists. This is the branch of philosophy. We call metaphysics, although much of the original question I has been explained by modern science related question of metaphysics, such as, why is there something rather than nothing a not? So simply answered because we too exist. As a part of the universe, metaphysics also considers the nature of human existence, and what it means to be conscious being. The area of metaphysics, concerned with questions of existence, ontology, is a huge one, and forms the basis of much of Western philosophy. Once philosophers had started to put received wisdom to test of rational examination, another fundamental question became obvious. How can we know? The study of nature and limits of knowledge forms a second main branch of philosophy epistemology. At its heart is the question of how we acquire knowledge. How we come to know what we know is some or even all knowledge innate. Or do we learn everything from experience? Can we know something from reasoning alone? Reasoning relies on establishing the truth of statement, which can then be used to build up a train of thought, leading to a conclusion. This might seem obvious to us now. But the idea of constructing a rational argument to distinguished philosophy from the superstition and religious explanation that had existed before the first philosophers. These thinkers had to devise a way of ensuring their ideas had validity. What emerged from their thinking was logic, a technique of reasoning that was gradually redefined over time. At first, simply, a useful tool for analyzing whether an argument held water, logic develop rules and convention. And soon became a field of study in its own right. Another branch of expanding subject of philosophy. A large part of the problem is that philosophical logic, unlike mathematics, is expressed in words, rather than numbers or symbols. And it's subject to all the ambiguity and subtleties inherited in language, constructing a reasoned argument involves using language carefully and accurately examining our statement and argument to make sure they mean what we think they mean. And when we study other people's argument, we have to analyze not only the logical steps they take, but also the language they use to see if their conclusion holds water out of this process came yet another field of philosophy that flourished in the twentieth century. The philosophy of language which examined terms and their meanings. The examination of what it means to lead a good life, what concepts such as justice and happiness actually mean. And how we can achieve them, and how we should behave forms the basis of the branch of philosophy known as ethics. And the related brand steaming from the question of what constitutes beauty and art is known as esthetics. From considering ethical question about our individual lives, it is a natural step to start thinking about the sort of society we would like to live in. How it should be governed the rights and responsibility of its citizens and so on. Political philosophy, the last of the major branches of philosophy, deals with these ideas and philosophers have come to come up with models of how they believe societies should be organized, ranging from Plato's republic to Karl Marx Communist manifesto. Does God exist? And do we have immortal soul? These are questions that have their roots in metaphysics, but they have implications in ethics too. For example, some philosophers have asked whether our morality comes from God or whether it is a purely human construct. And this, in turn, has raised the whole debate as to what extent humanity has free will. In the eastern philosophies that evolved in china and india, particularly daoism and buddhism the lines between philosophy and religion are less clear at least to western ways of thinking. this marks one of the major difference between western and eastern philosophies. Although eastern philosophies are not generally a result of divine revelation of religious dogma. They are often intricately linked with what we would consider matters of faith. Even though philosophical reasoning, is frequently used to justify faith in judeo-christian and islamic world, faith and belief forms an integral part of eastern philosophy that has no parallel in the west. Eastern and western philosophy also differ in their starting point. Where the ancient greeks posed metaphysical question, the first chinese philosophers considered this adequately dealt with by religion. And instead concerned themselves with moral and political philosophy.