BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

Here interest is in some traditional branches of philosophy. Philosophy in its nature brings all sphere of learning within its scope. The following are some of the specific areas of philosophic enquiries:Metaphysics: the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of the nature of being and beings, existence, time and space, and causality. It grapples itself with all things in as much they exist: whether they exist in the natural order or supernatural order. It answers questions such as: Does another world exist apart from the material one?, are there God, soul and such things as spiritual beings? What is the position of man among realities both corporeal and incorporeal? Thus metaphysics is the use of natural reason to study the first causes of all things insofar as they are.
EPISTEMOLOGY
Epistemology as a branch of philosophy concerns itself with human knowledge. It is a derivative from the greek, “episteme” and “logos” meaning knowledge and study respectively, so that epistemology will mean the study of knowledge. It seeks to study nature, scope, sources and the validity of human knowledge. Epistemological inquiries include: how do we know that what we know is true? How can knowledge be justified as truth, for knowledge does not worth its salt unless it is the knowledge of the truth. What can the human mind know and not know? Thus epistemology is philosophy on human knowledge.
LOGIC: this branch of philosophy deals with the theory of deductive and inductive arguments and aims to distinguish good from bad reasoning. Reasoning in philosophy can be inductive or deductive. When inference/conclusion is drawn from consideration of two or more instances, the conclusion is known as Inductive knowledge. But when conclusions are made from consideration all instances, the result is deductive reasoning. The branch of philosophy that has the role of scrutinizing these methods of reasoning is Logic. It sees to the sensibleness of knowledge claims.
AXIOLOGY: this is a branch of philosophy that studies value. It looks into the nature, types, and governing criteria of values and value judgments. Value is that which one attaches importance to. It may be ethical when the question is all about the rightness or wrongness of human acts, or aesthetical when it considers beauty or ugliness.

ETHICS: this branch of philosophy looks into the rightness and wrongness of human acts and conducts. It studies the morality of what people willfully do such that some acts are considered good and praise worthy and others are deemed evil and punishable. It is often referred to as moral philosophy.