Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aesthetics. "Aesthetician" redirects here. For a cosmetologist who specializes in the study of skin care, see Esthetician. More specific aesthetic theory, often with practical implications, relating to a particular branch of the arts is divided into areas of aesthetics such as art theory, literary theory, film theory and music theory. An example from art theory is aesthetic theory as a set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement: such as the Cubist aesthetic.[6] Etymology[edit] The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthetikos, meaning "esthetic, sensitive, sentient"), which in turn was derived from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthanomai, meaning "I perceive, feel, sense").[7] The term "aesthetics" was appropriated and coined with new meaning in the German form Æsthetik (modern spelling Ästhetik) by Alexander Baumgarten in 1735.
Aesthetics and the philosophy of art[edit] Aesthetics is for the artist as Ornithology is for the birds.— Barnett Newman[8][9] Epistemology. Philosophical study of knowledge The school of skepticism questions the human ability to attain knowledge while fallibilism says that knowledge is never certain.
Empiricists hold that all knowledge comes from sense experience, whereas rationalists believe that some knowledge does not depend on it. Coherentists argue that a belief is justified if it coheres with other beliefs. Foundationalists, by contrast, maintain that the justification of basic beliefs does not depend on other beliefs. Internalism and externalism debate whether justification is determined solely by mental states or also by external circumstances. Separate branches of epistemology focus on knowledge in specific fields, like scientific, mathematical, moral, and religious knowledge. Naturalized epistemology relies on empirical methods and discoveries, whereas formal epistemology uses formal tools from logic.
Epistemology explores how people should acquire beliefs. . Major schools of thought [edit] Skepticism and fallibilism. At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this ea..... - Nietzsche. Ethics. The three major areas of study within ethics are:[1] Meta-ethics, concerning the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions, and how their truth values (if any) can be determinedNormative ethics, concerning the practical means of determining a moral course of actionApplied ethics, concerning what a person is obligated (or permitted) to do in a specific situation or a particular domain of action[1] Defining ethics[edit] The word "ethics" in English refers to several things.[6] It can refer to philosophical ethics—a project that attempts to use reason in order to answer various kinds of ethical questions.
[citation needed] It can also be used to describe a particular person's own, idiosyncratic principles or habits.[7] For example: "Joe has good ethics. " [edit] Main article: Meta-ethics Meta-ethics has always accompanied philosophical ethics. The ontology of ethics is about value-bearing things or properties, i.e. the kind of things or stuff referred to by ethical propositions. Logic. Logic (from the Ancient Greek: λογική, logike)[1] is the branch of philosophy concerned with the use and study of valid reasoning.[2][3] The study of logic also features prominently in mathematics and computer science. Logic is often divided into three parts: inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning. The study of logic[edit] The concept of logical form is central to logic, it being held that the validity of an argument is determined by its logical form, not by its content. Traditional Aristotelian syllogistic logic and modern symbolic logic are examples of formal logics.
Informal logic is the study of natural language arguments. Logical form[edit] Main article: Logical form Logic is generally considered formal when it analyzes and represents the form of any valid argument type. This is called showing the logical form of the argument. Second, certain parts of the sentence must be replaced with schematic letters. From an observed surprising circumstance from. Metaphysics. Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it,[1] although the term is not easily defined.[2] Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:[3] Ultimately, what is there?
What is it like? Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy. Originally, the term "science" (Latin scientia) simply meant "knowledge". The scientific method, however, transformed natural philosophy into an empirical activity deriving from experiment unlike the rest of philosophy. Etymology[edit] However, once the name was given, the commentators sought to find intrinsic reasons for its appropriateness.
Central questions[edit] Cosmology and cosmogony[edit] Metaphysical Cosmology is the branch of metaphysics that deals with the world as the totality of all phenomena in space and time. [edit] [edit]