Philosophy
Philosophy (love of wisdom in ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its own methods and assumptions.
Historically, many of the individual sciences, like physics and psychology, formed part of philosophy. But they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term. The main traditions in the history of philosophy include Western, Arabic-Persian, Indian, and Chinese philosophy.
Major branches of philosophy are epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epistemology studies what knowledge is and how to acquire it. Ethics investigates moral principles and what constitutes right conduct. Logic is the study of correct reasoning and explores how good arguments can be distinguished from bad ones. Metaphysics examines the most general features of reality, like existence, objects and their properties, causation, space, and time. Other notable subfields are aesthetics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and political philosophy.
Philosophers use a great variety of methods to arrive at philosophical knowledge. They include conceptual analysis, reliance on common sense and intuitions, use of thought experiments, analysis of ordinary language, description of experience, and critical questioning. Philosophy is related to many other fields, like the sciences, mathematics, business, law, and journalism. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective and studies their scope and fundamental concepts. It also investigates their methods and ethical implications.

Etymology
The word "philosophy" comes from the ancient Greek words φίλος (philos: "love") and σοφία (sophia: "wisdom"). Etymologically, it means "the love of wisdom". Some sources claim that the term was coined by Presocratic philosopher Pythagoras, but this is not certain.The word entered the English language primarily from Old French and Anglo-Norman starting around 1175 CE. The French philosophie is itself a borrowing from the Latin philosophia. The term philosophy acquired, and to some extent still retains, the meanings of "advanced study of the speculative subjects (logic, ethics, physics, and metaphysics)", "deep wisdom consisting of love of truth and virtuous living", "profound learning as transmitted by the ancient writers", and "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, and the basic limits of human understanding".Before the modern age, the term philosophy was used in a very wide sense. It included most forms of rational inquiry, like the individual sciences, as its subdisciplines. For instance, natural philosophy was considered a major branch of philosophy. It encompassed a wide range of fields, including disciplines like physics, chemistry, and biology. An example of this usage is the 1687 book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton. This book referred to natural philosophy in its title, but it is today considered a book of physics.The meaning of philosophy changed toward the end of the modern period to acquire the more narrow meaning common today. In this new sense, the term is mainly associated with philosophical disciplines like metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Among other topics, it covers the rational study of reality, knowledge, and values. But it is distinguished from other disciplines of rational inquiry like the empirical sciences and mathematics.

Conceptions of philosophy
General conception
The practice of philosophy is characterized by various general features: it is a form of rational inquiry, it aims to be systematic, and it tends to critically reflect on its own methods and presuppositions. It requires thinking "as hard and as clearly...about some of the most interesting and enduring problems that human minds have ever encountered"; many of these we cannot avoid but are unable to answer once and for all.According to the 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, the task of philosophy is united by four questions: (1) What can I know?; (2) What should I do?; (3) What may I hope?; and (4) What is the human being? His entire career, as he conceived it, was devoted to systematically addressing these four questions.The theme of self-critical intellectual humility may be traced back to the origins of Western philosophy. Socrates, as depicted in Plato's dialogues, famously expresses incredulity when told by the Oracle at Delphi that he is the wisest person of all. What he comes to conclude, however, is that his wisdom consists in his knowing that he does not possess the most exalted kind of wisdom, namely, that about what is truly fine and good. Consistent with his well-known claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living", Socrates comes to the paradoxical conclusion that the active pursuit of wisdom is good and valuable in itself, irrespective of whether one ever arrives at final definitions. This is consistent with the view that the kind of knowledge that philosophy seeks is not information, but understanding.Confronting the unlikelihood of ever arriving at final answers to the great questions of philosophy, Bertrand Russell offers this justification for nevertheless undertaking the labor: "The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason."

Academic definitions
Attempts to define philosophy in precise terms are controversial. Some approaches argue that there is a set of essential features shared by all parts of philosophy. Others see only weaker family resemblances or contend that it is merely an empty blanket term. Precise definitions are often only accepted by theorists belonging to a certain philosophical movement and are revisionistic in that many presumed parts of philosophy would not deserve the title "philosophy" if they were true.Some definitions characterize philosophy in relation to its method, like pure reasoning. Others focus more on its topic, for example, as the study of the biggest patterns of the world as a whole or as the attempt to answer the big questions. Both approaches have the problem that they are usually either too wide, by including non-philosophical disciplines, or too narrow, by excluding some philosophical sub-disciplines.Many definitions of philosophy emphasize its intimate relation to science. In this sense, philosophy is sometimes understood as a proper science in its own right. According to some naturalistic philosophers, like W. V. O. Quine, philosophy is an empirical yet very abstract science that is concerned with very wide-ranging empirical patterns instead of particular observations. Science-based definitions usually face the problem of explaining why philosophy in its long history has not made the type of progress seen in other sciences. This problem is avoided by seeing philosophy as an immature or provisional science whose subdisciplines cease to be philosophy once they have fully developed. In this sense, philosophy is the midwife of the sciences.Other definitions focus more on the contrast between science and philosophy. A common theme among many such conceptions is that philosophy is concerned with meaning, understanding, or the clarification of language. According to one view, philosophy is conceptual analysis, which involves finding the necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of concepts.Some phenomenologists, such as Edmund Husserl and his followers, characterize philosophy as a "rigorous science" attained by way of the subjective achievements of transcendental synthesis. By radically suspending all our theoretical assumptions about reality, Husserl claims we can get back to "things themselves", that is, as originally given in experience, which itself is what provides the foundation for all theoretical knowledge.Another approach presents philosophy as a linguistic therapy. According to Ludwig Wittgenstein, for example, philosophy aims at dispelling misunderstandings to which humans are susceptible due to the confusing structure of natural language.An early approach found in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy is that philosophy is the spiritual practice of developing one's rational capacities. It has been rehabilitated by philosophers such as Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot. This practice is an expression of the philosopher's love of wisdom and has the aim of improving one's well-being by leading a reflective life.Another definition characterizes philosophy as, quite simply, thinking about thinking. This emphasizes its self-critical, reflective nature.

History
The history of philosophy studies the development of philosophical thought. It aims to provide a systematic and chronological exposition of philosophical concepts and doctrines. Some theorists see it as a part of intellectual history, but it also investigates questions not covered by intellectual history such as whether the theories of past philosophers are true and philosophically relevant today. The history of philosophy is primarily concerned with theories based on rational inquiry and argumentation. However, some historians understand it in a looser sense that includes myths, religious teachings, and proverbial lore. The main traditions in the history of philosophy include Western, Arabic-Persian, Indian, and Chinese philosophy, the latter two of which are often referred to under the broader heading of Eastern philosophy. Other influential philosophical traditions are Japanese philosophy, Latin American philosophy, and African philosophy.

Western
Western philosophy covers philosophical thought linked to the geographical region and cultural heritage of the Western world. It originated in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE with the Presocratics. They attempted to provide rational explanations of the cosmos as a whole. The philosophy following them was shaped by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They expanded the range of topics to questions like how people should act, how to arrive at knowledge, and what the nature of reality and mind is. The later part of the ancient period was marked by the emergence of philosophical movements like Epicureanism, Stoicism, Skepticism, and Neoplatonism. The medieval period started in the 5th century CE. Its focus was on religious topics and many thinkers used ancient philosophy to explain and further elaborate Christian doctrines.The Renaissance period started in the 14th century and saw a renewed interest in various schools of Ancient philosophy, in particular Platonism. Humanism also emerged in this period. The following modern period started in the 17th century. One of its central concerns was how philosophical and scientific knowledge are created. Specific importance was given to the role of reason and sensory experience. Many of these innovations were used in the Enlightenment movement to challenge traditional authorities. Various attempts to develop all-inclusive systems of philosophy were made in the later part of the modern period, for example, by German idealism. Influential developments in 20th-century philosophy were the emergence and application of formal logic and the focus on the role of language as well as philosophical movements like phenomenology and pragmatism. The 20th century saw a rapid expansion of academic philosophy in terms of the number of philosophical publications and philosophers working at academic institutions. There was also a noticeable growth in the number of female philosophers but they still remained underrepresented.

Arabic-Persian
Arabic-Persian philosophy is the philosophical tradition of Arabic- and Persian-speaking regions. It started in the early 9th century CE and had its peak period during the Islamic Golden Age. It was strongly influenced by Ancient Greek philosophers and employed their ideas to elaborate and interpret the teachings of the Quran.
Al-Kindi is usually regarded as the first philosopher of this tradition. He translated and interpreted many works of Aristotle and Neoplatonists in his attempt to show that there is a harmony between reason and faith. Avicenna also followed this goal and developed a comprehensive philosophical system to provide a rational understanding of reality encompassing science, religion, and mysticism. Al-Ghazali was a strong critic of the idea that reason can arrive at a true understanding of reality and God. He formulated a detailed critique of philosophy and tried to assign philosophy a more limited place besides the teachings of the Quran and mystical insight. Following Al-Ghazali and the end of the Islamic Golden Age, the influence of philosophical inquiry waned. Mulla Sadra is often regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of the subsequent period.

Indian
Indian philosophy covers philosophical thought that originated on the Indian subcontinent. One of its distinguishing features is its integrated exploration of the nature of reality, the ways of arriving at knowledge, and the spiritual question of how to reach enlightenment. It started around 900 BCE when the religious scriptures known as the Vedas were written. They contemplate issues concerning the relation between the self and ultimate reality as well as the question of how souls are reborn based on their past actions. This period also saw the emergence of non-Vedic teachings, like Buddhism and Jainism.The subsequent classical period started roughly 200 BCE and was characterized by the emergence of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism. They are known as the astikas and are Nyāyá, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta. The school of Advaita Vedanta developed later in this period. It claimed that everything is one and that the impression of a universe consisting of many distinct entities is an illusion. The modern period began roughly 1800 CE and was shaped by the encounter with Western thought. Various philosophers tried to formulate comprehensive systems to harmonize diverse philosophical and religious teachings. For example, Swami Vivekananda used the teachings of Advaita Vedanta to argue that all the different religions are valid paths toward the one divine.

Chinese
Chinese philosophy encompasses the philosophical and intellectual heritage of China. Compared to the other main traditions, it placed less emphasis on questions of ultimate reality. It was more interested in practical questions associated with right social conduct and government. It originated in the 6th century BCE when the schools of Confucianism and Daoism emerged. Confucian thought focused on different forms of moral virtues and explored how they lead to harmony in society. Daoism broadened this focus to also include questions about the relation between humans and nature. The introduction of Buddhism to China in the following period resulted in the development of new forms of Buddhism.The modern period in Chinese philosophy began in the early 20th century and was shaped by the influence of and reactions to Western philosophy. Of particular importance were the ideas of Karl Marx on class struggle, socialism, and communism. They led to the development of Chinese Marxism and resulted in a significant transformation of the political landscape when Mao Zedong worked on their practical implementation in the form of a communist revolution.

Core branches
Philosophical questions can be grouped into various branches. These groupings allow philosophers to focus on a set of similar topics and interact with other thinkers who are interested in the same questions. Epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics are sometimes listed as the main branches. There are many other subfields besides them and the different divisions are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive. For example, political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics are sometimes linked under the general heading of value theory as they investigate normative or evaluative aspects. Furthermore, philosophical inquiry sometimes overlaps with other disciplines in the natural and social sciences, religion, and mathematics.

Epistemology
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It is also known as theory of knowledge and tries to understand what knowledge is, how it arises, what its limits are, and what value it has. It further examines the nature of truth, belief, justification, and rationality. Some of the questions addressed by epistemologists include By what method(s) can one acquire knowledge?; How is truth established?; and Can we prove causal relations?Epistemology is primarily interested in so-called declarative knowledge or knowledge of facts, like knowing that Princess Diana died in 1997. But it also investigates practical knowledge, like knowing how to ride a bicycle, and knowledge by acquaintance, like knowing a celebrity personally.One area in epistemology is the analysis of knowledge. It assumes that declarative knowledge is a combination of different parts and attempts to identify what those parts are. An influential theory in this area claims that knowledge has three components: it is (1) a belief that is (2) justified and (3) true. This theory is controversial and the difficulties associated with it are known as the Gettier problem.Another area in epistemology asks how people acquire knowledge. Often-discussed sources of knowledge are perception, introspection, memory, inference, and testimony. According to empiricists, all knowledge is based on some form of experience. Rationalists reject this view and hold that some forms of knowledge, like innate knowledge, are not acquired through experience. The regress problem is a common issue in relation to the sources of knowledge and the justification they offer. It is based on the idea that beliefs require some kind of reason or evidence to be justified. The problem is that the source of justification may itself be in need of another source of justification. This leads to an infinite regress or circular reasoning. This idea is rejected by foundationalists, who claim that some sources can provide justification without requiring justification themselves.Many discussions in epistemology touch on the topic of philosophical skepticism, which raises doubts about some or all claims to knowledge. These doubts are often based on the idea that knowledge requires absolute certainty and that humans are unable to acquire it.

Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, studies what constitutes right conduct. It is also concerned with the moral evaluation of character traits and institutions. It explores what the standards of morality are and how to live a good life.Philosophical ethics addresses such basic questions as Are ethics relative?; Which is more important: well-being or obligation?; and What gives life meaning?The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Meta-ethics asks abstract questions about the nature and sources of morality. It analyzes the meaning of ethical concepts, like right action and obligation. It also investigates whether ethical theories can be true in an absolute sense and how to acquire knowledge of them. Normative ethics encompasses general theories of how to distinguish between right and wrong conduct. It helps guide moral decisions by examining what moral obligations and rights people have. Applied ethics studies the consequences of the general theories developed by normative ethics in specific situations, for example, in the workplace or for medical treatments.Within contemporary normative ethics, consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics are influential schools of thought.
Consequentialists judge actions based on their consequences. One such view is utilitarianism, which argues that actions should increase overall happiness while minimizing suffering. Deontologists judge actions based on whether they follow moral duties, like abstaining from lying or killing. They claim that what matters is that actions are in tune with those duties and not what consequences they have. Virtue theorists judge actions based on the moral character of the agent who performs them. According to this view, actions should conform to what an ideally virtuous agent would do.

Logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It tries to understand how to distinguish good from bad arguments. It is usually divided into formal and informal logic. Formal logic uses formal languages with a precise symbolic representation to investigate arguments. In this way, it formulates exact criteria and methods based on the formal structure of arguments to determine whether they are correct or incorrect. Informal logic studies arguments expressed in natural language. It uses non-formal criteria and standards to analyze and evaluate the correctness of arguments. It relies on additional factors besides the form of arguments, such as their content and context.Logic examines a variety of arguments. Deductive arguments are mainly studied by formal logic. An argument is deductively valid if the truth of its premises ensures the truth of its conclusion. Deductively valid arguments follow a rule of inference, like modus ponens, which has the following logical form: "p; if p then q; therefore q". An example is the argument "today is Sunday; if today is Sunday then I don't have to go to work today; therefore I don't have to go to work today".The premises of non-deductive arguments also support their conclusion. But this support is not as certain and does not guarantee that the conclusion is true. One form is inductive reasoning. It starts from a set of individual cases and uses generalization to arrive at a universal law governing all cases. An example is the inference that "all ravens are black" based on observations of many individual black ravens. Another form is abductive reasoning. It starts from an observation and concludes that the best explanation of this observation must be true. This happens, for example, when a doctor diagnoses a disease based on the observed symptoms.Logic also investigates incorrect forms of reasoning, so-called fallacies. They are divided into formal and informal fallacies based on whether the source of the error lies only in the form of the argument or also in its content and context.Central topics in logic are propositional logic, predicate logic, modal logic, non-classical logic, mathematical logic, computational logic, and metalogic.

Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality, such as existence, objects and their properties, wholes and their parts, space and time, events, and causation. There are disagreements about the precise definition of the term and its meaning has changed throughout the ages. Metaphysicists attempt to answer basic questions like Why is there something rather than nothing?; Of what does reality ultimately consist?; and Are humans free?Metaphysics is sometimes divided into general metaphysics and specific or special metaphysics. General metaphysics investigates being as such. It tries to understand the features that all entities have in common. Specific metaphysics, on the other hand, is interested in different kinds of being, the features they have, and how they differ from each other.An important area in metaphysics is ontology. Some theorists identify it with general metaphysics. Ontology investigates concepts like being, becoming, and reality. It studies the categories of being and asks what exists on the most fundamental level. Another subfield of metaphysics is philosophical cosmology. It is interested in the essence of the world as a whole. It asks questions like whether the universe has a beginning and an end and whether it was created by something else.A key topic in metaphysics concerns the question of whether reality only consists of physical things like matter and energy. Alternative suggestions are that mental entities (like souls and experiences) and abstract entities (like numbers) exist apart from physical things. Another topic in metaphysics concerns the problem of identity. It asks questions like how much an entity can change while still remaining the same entity. According to one view, entities have essential and accidental features. They can change their accidental features but they cease to be the same entity if they lose an essential feature. A central distinction in metaphysics is between particulars and universals. Universals, like the color red, can exist at different locations at the same time. This is not the case for particulars, like individual persons or specific objects.

Other major branches
There are many additional subfields of philosophy besides its core branches. These are some of the most prominent.

Aesthetics
Aesthetics in the philosophical sense is the field that studies the nature and appreciation of beauty and other aesthetic properties, like the sublime. Although it is often treated together with the philosophy of art, aesthetics is a broader category that encompasses other aspects of experience, such as natural beauty. In a more general sense, aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture, and nature". A key question in aesthetics is whether beauty is an objective or mind-independent feature of entities. This view is rejected by subjectivists, who claim that beauty is not an inherent quality of objects but depends on how people subjectively experience them. Aesthetic philosophers also investigate the nature of aesthetic experiences and judgments. Further topics include the essence of works of art and the processes involved in creating them.

Philosophy of language
The philosophy of language studies the nature and function of language. It examines the concepts of meaning, reference, and truth.  It tries to answer questions like how words are related to things and how language affects human thought and understanding. It is closely related to the disciplines of logic and linguistics. The philosophy of language rose to particular prominence in the early 20th century in analytic philosophy due to the works of Frege and Russell. One of its central topics is to understand how sentences get their meaning. There are two broad theoretical camps: those emphasizing the formal truth conditions of sentences, and those emphasizing pragmatic use conditions, the latter of which is associated with speech act theory.

Philosophy of mind
The philosophy of mind studies the nature of mental phenomena and how they are related to the physical world. It aims to understand different types of conscious and unconscious mental states, like beliefs, desires, intentions, feelings, sensations, and free will. An influential intuition in the philosophy of mind is the common-sense distinction between an "inner world" of experience of an object and the existence of this object in the "external world". The mind-body problem is the problem of explaining how matter and mind are related. The main traditional responses are materialism, which assumes that matter is more fundamental; idealism, which assumes that mind is more fundamental; and dualism, which assumes that mind and matter are distinct types of entities. In contemporary philosophy, a widely accepted position is functionalism, which understands mental states in terms of the functional or causal roles they play. The mind-body problem is closely related to the hard problem of consciousness, which asks how the physical brain can produce qualitatively subjective experiences.

Philosophy of religion
The philosophy of religion investigates the basic concepts, assumptions, and arguments associated with religion. It critically reflects on what religion is, how to define the divine, and whether one or more gods exist. It also includes the discussion of worldviews that reject religious doctrines. Further questions addressed by the philosophy of religion are: How are we to interpret religious language, if not literally?; Is divine omniscience compatible with free will?; and, Are the great variety of world religions in some way compatible in spite of their apparently contradictory theological claims? Its topics cover nearly all branches of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. It differs from theology since theological debates typically take place within one religious tradition while debates in the philosophy of religion transcend any particular set of theological assumptions.

Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science examines the fundamental concepts, assumptions, and problems associated with science. It tries to determine what science is and how to distinguish it from pseudoscience. It investigates the methods employed by scientists, how their application can result in knowledge, and on what assumptions they are based. It also studies the purpose and implications of science.  Some of its questions are What counts as an adequate explanation?; Is a scientific law anything more than a description of a regularity?; and Can some special sciences be explained entirely in the terms of a more general science? It is a vast field that is commonly divided into the philosophy of the natural sciences and the philosophy of the social sciences, with further subdivisions for each of the individual sciences under these headings. How these branches are related to one another is also a question in the philosophy of science. Many of its philosophical issues belong to the fields of metaphysics or epistemology.

Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the philosophical inquiry into the fundamental principles and ideas governing political systems and societies. It examines the basic concepts, assumptions, and arguments in the field of politics. It investigates the nature and purpose of government and compares different forms of government. It further asks under what circumstances the use of political power is legitimate rather than a form of simple violence. In this regard, it is concerned with the distribution of political power, social and material goods as well as legal rights. Other topics are justice, liberty, equality, sovereignty, and nationalism. Political philosophy involves a very general inquiry into normative matters and differs in this respect from political science, which tries to provide empirical descriptions of actually existing states. Political philosophy is often treated as a subfield of ethics. Influential schools of thought in political philosophy are liberalism, conservativism, socialism, and anarchism.

Methods
Methods of philosophy are ways of conducting philosophical inquiry. They include techniques for arriving at philosophical knowledge and justifying philosophical claims as well as principles used for choosing between competing theories.A great variety of methods has been employed throughout the history of philosophy. Many of them differ significantly from the methods used in the natural sciences in that they do not use experimental data obtained through measuring equipment.The choice of one's method usually has important implications both for how philosophical theories are constructed and for the arguments cited for or against them. This choice is often guided by epistemological considerations about what constitutes philosophical evidence, how much support it offers, and how to acquire it.Various disagreements on the level of philosophical theories have their source in methodological disagreements. The discovery of new methods has often had important consequences both for how philosophers conduct their research and for what claims they defend. Some philosophers engage in most of their theorizing using one particular method while others employ a wider range of methods based on which one fits the specific problem investigated best.Conceptual analysis is a well-known method in analytic philosophy. It aims to clarify the meaning of concepts by analyzing them into their fundamental constituents. Another method often employed in analytic philosophy is based on common sense. It starts with commonly accepted beliefs and tries to draw interesting conclusions from them, which it often employs in a negative sense to criticize philosophical theories that are too far removed from how the average person sees the issue. It is very similar to how ordinary language philosophy tackles philosophical questions by investigating how ordinary language is used.Various methods in philosophy give particular importance to intuitions, that is, non-inferential impressions about the correctness of specific claims or general principles. For example, they play an important role in thought experiments, which employ counterfactual thinking to evaluate the possible consequences of an imagined situation. These anticipated consequences can then be used to confirm or refute philosophical theories. The method of reflective equilibrium also employs intuitions. It seeks to form a coherent position on a certain issue by examining all the relevant beliefs and intuitions, some of which often have to be deemphasized or reformulated in order to arrive at a coherent perspective.Pragmatists stress the significance of concrete practical consequences for assessing whether a philosophical theory is true. According to the pragmatic maxim as formulated by Charles Sanders Peirce, the idea a person has of an object is nothing more than the totality of practical consequences they associate with this object. Pragmatists have also used this method to expose merely verbal disagreements that make no genuine difference on the level of consequences.Phenomenologists seek knowledge of the realm of appearance and the structure of human experience. Their inquiry starts from a first-person perspective and proceeds by suspending all judgments about the external world. This technique of phenomenological reduction is known as "bracketing" or epoché. The goal is to give an unbiased description of the appearances of things.

Relation to other fields
Philosophy is closely related to many other fields. It is sometimes understood as a metadiscipline that clarifies their nature and limits. It does this by critically examining their basic concepts, background assumptions, and methods. In this regard, it plays a key role in providing an interdisciplinary perspective. It bridges the gap between different disciplines by analyzing which concepts and problems they have in common. It shows how they overlap while also delimiting their scope. Historically, philosophy is often considered the "mother of all sciences" since most of the individual sciences formed part of philosophy until they reached their status as autonomous disciplines.
The influence of philosophy is felt in various fields that require difficult practical decisions. In bioethics, philosophical considerations affect issues like whether an embryo is already a person and under what conditions abortion is morally permissible. A closely related philosophical problem is how humans should treat other animals, for example, whether it is acceptable to use non-human animals as food or for research experiments.
In relation to business and professional life, philosophy has contributed by providing ethical frameworks. They contain guidelines on which business practices are morally acceptable and cover the issue of the corporate social responsibility. In the field of politics, philosophy addresses issues like how to assess whether a government policy is just.Philosophical inquiry is relevant to many fields that are concerned with what to believe and how to arrive at evidence for one's beliefs. This is a key issue for the sciences, which have as one of their prime objectives the creation of scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence but it is often not clear whether empirical observations are neutral or already include theoretical assumptions. A closely related problem is whether the available evidence is sufficient to decide between competing theories.In the fields of theology and religion, there are many doctrines associated with the existence and nature of God as well as rules governing correct behavior. A key issue is whether a rational person should believe these doctrines, for example, whether revelation in the form of holy books and religious experiences of the divine are sufficient evidence for these beliefs.A similar problem in relation to the law is what counts as evidence and how much evidence is required to find a person guilty of a crime. A related issue in journalism is how to ensure truth and objectivity when reporting on events.Philosophy in the form of logic has been influential in the fields of mathematics and computer science. Further fields influenced by philosophy include psychology, sociology, linguistics, education, and the arts. The close relation between philosophy and other fields is also reflected in the fact that many philosophy graduates go on to work in related fields rather than in philosophy itself.An example of the cultural and critical role of philosophy is found in its influence on the social and political movement known as feminism. It has shaped the understanding of key concepts in feminism, for instance, the meaning of gender, how it differs from biological sex, and what role it plays in the formation of personal identity. Philosophers have also investigated the concepts of justice and equality and what implications they have for the unfair treatment of women in male-dominated societies.However, the idea that philosophy is useful for many aspects of life and society is sometimes rejected. According to one such view, philosophy is mainly done for its own sake and does not make significant contributions to existing practices or external goals.

See also
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
External links
Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
PhilPapers – a comprehensive directory of online philosophical articles and books by academic philosophers
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy