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Philosophy Study Guide

This document is a study guide for philosophy as a whole. It will offer two different orders in which the subject can be studied, but in both of them it will proceed breadth-first, giving students a broad but shallow overview of the whole subject to begin with, and then a deeper focus on narrower parts of the subject afterward.

The main sources of study to be used will be three online encyclopedias. They are, in decreasing order of quality:

• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ("SEP")
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ("IEP")
• Wikipedia ("WP")

These sources will generally give their own sources in turn, the primary texts written by these philosophers about these topics, where students can then continue their philosophical study in further depth.

The two different orders for studying philosophy that this guide will offer are:

• Historical order, from ancient philosophy to modern philosophy, which is how most introductory classes on philosophy begin.
• Topical order, from more theoretical philosophy to more applied philosophy, beginning with the logically prior technical topics like language, art, and mathematics, and building up from there to things like the relationship between science and religion, political philosophy, and the meaning of life.

Both the historical and topical structure are borrowed from my own philosophy book, The Codex Quarentis, but other than the emphasis placed on those historical figures and those topics of study, my own philosophical opinions about them are omitted here in lieu of the scholarly consensus from these encyclopedias.

Historical order

Three very prominent philosophers serve as landmarks in the history of philosophy, through its traditional division into Ancient, Medieval, and Modern periods:

• Socrates ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was the founding figure of the classical era of ancient philosophy.
• Thomas Aquinas ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was the founder of what became the dominant school of medieval philosophy.
• Immanuel Kant ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was the latest figure crucial to both major branches of contemporary late modern philosophy.

The history of philosophy has repeatedly seen the study of the subject split between two major competing schools of thought, and each of these landmark philosophers represents a punctuation of such division: a unification of the preceding two schools of thought, and the common ground from which the following two schools of thought diverge.

A deeper level study can thus begin with the philosophers with whom those preceding schools of thought culminated, and those who initiated the following schools of thought after each of these landmark philosophers.

• Thales ( IEP | WP ) was the earliest figure later recognized as part of the philosophical tradition, and so the start of the "Presocratic" early period of ancient philosophy.
  • Anaximander ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a student of Thales, and the first figure in the Ionian branch of Presocratic philosophy.
  • Pythagoras ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a student of Anaximander, and the first figure in the Italiote branch of Presocratic philosophy.
  
  
  • Heraclitus ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was another Ionian philosopher who was influenced by Anaximander, and went on to himself influence Anaxagoras and thereby Socrates.
  • Xenophanes ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was another Italiote philosopher who was influenced by Pythagoras, and went on to himself influence Parmenides and thereby Socrates.
  
  
  • Anaxagoras ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was an Ionian philosopher who was a direct influence on Socrates.
  • Parmenides ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was an Italiote philosopher who was a direct influence on Socrates.
• Socrates, covered above, punctuated the end of the Presocratic era of ancient philosophy, and the beginning of the classical era.
  • Plato ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a student of Socrates, and the first figure in the Platonic or Academic branch of classical philosophy.
  • Aristotle ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a student of Plato, and the first figure in the Aristotelian or Peripatetic branch of classical philosophy.
  
  
  • Plotinus ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a Platonist philosopher of the late classical era who began what was retroactively known as Neoplatonism, which would go on to be very influential on medieval philosophy.
  • Ibn Sina, also called Avicenna, ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was an Aristotelian philosopher of the early medieval period, who is largely responsible for the transmission of Aristotle's works from the ancient world to the medieval and onward.
  
  
  • Proclus ( SEP | WP ) was a prominent Neoplatonist philosopher on the threshold of the medieval period, and a major influence on Aquinas.
  • Ibn Rushd, also called Averroes, ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was an Aristotelian philosopher of the early medieval period, and a major influence on Aquinas.
• Thomas Aquinas, covered above, incorporated Aristotelian philosophy into the Platonist philosophy of the medieval Christian world, and founded the dominant school of medieval philosophy, from which modern philosophy emerged.
  • Rene Descartes ( SEP | IEP | WP ) began the modern period of philosophy and the Rationalist school of thought that was one of the two major branches of the early modern period.
  • John Locke ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was an early modern philosopher who began the Empiricist school of thought that was one of the two major branches of the early modern period.
  
  
  • Baruch Spinoza ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was another prominent Rationalist philosopher with very unique theories.
  • George Berkeley ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was another prominent Empiricist philosopher with very unique theories.
  
  
  • Gottfried Leibniz ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a prominent figure in the late Rationalist school and a major influence on Kant.
  • David Hume ( SEP | IEP | WP ) was a prominent figure in the late Empiricist school and a major influence on Kant.
• Immanuel Kant, covered above, is widely credited with synthesizing together the Rationalist and Empiricist schools of early modern philosophy, and beginning the contemporary late modern period.
  • Georg Hegel ( SEP | WP ) was a prominent philosopher following after Immanuel Kant, and one of the most foundational figures in what is now called the Continental branch of contemporary philosophy.
  • Bertrand Russell ( SEP | WP ) was a foundational figure in the Analytic school of contemporary philosophy, which is largely rooted in its objection to the direction that philosophy began taking following Hegel.
  
  
  • Martin Heidegger ( SEP | IEP | WP ) is another very prominent Continental philosopher, perhaps the most prominent since Hegel himself.
  • Willard Quine ( SEP | WP ) is another very prominent Analytic philosopher, perhaps the most prominent since Russell himself.
  
  
  • Jurgen Habermas ( SEP | IEP | WP ) is a prominent living philosopher who well represents the contemporary state of Continental philosophy, and begins to unify it with the Pragmatist school of philosophy which holds promise for reunifying the two main schools.
  • Robert Brandom ( WP ) is a prominent living philosopher who well represetnts the contemporary state of Analytic philosophy, and begins to unify it with the Pragmatist school of philosophy which holds promise for reunifying the two main schools.
• You might be the next great philosopher to unify Analytic and Continental philosophy together again!

Topical order

The subtopics within philosophy can be arranged in relation to each other along a number of different axes, and two of the most important axes are the descriptive-to-prescriptive axis, and the theoretical-to-applied axis. These may seem superficially alike but they can be reckoned separately, orthogonally to each other. The descriptive topics have to do with things like existence, mind, knowledge, and education; while the prescriptive topics have to do with things like value, will, justice, and governance. Meanwhile, the theoretical topics have to do with things like the language with which we make claims about such things, either descriptive or prescriptive, and when and how such claims could be reckoned correct; while the applied topics have to do with how both those descriptive and prescriptive matters factor into how to live our lives in practice.

• Philosophy of language ( IEP | WP ) is perhaps the most theoretical topic within philosophy, being entirely about the meaning of words, in contrast to the meaning of life.


• Metaphysics ( SEP | WP ) is the broad and general descriptive topic, the philosophical inquiry into what is real.
• Ethics ( IEP | WP ) is the broad and general prescriptive topic, the philosophical inquiry into what is moral.


• The meaning of life ( SEP | WP ) is the big applied topic that draws many people into philosophy to begin with, into which many if not all of the other philosophical topics factor.

Near each of the poles of the theoretical-applied axis are other closely-related fields separated along the descriptive-prescriptive axis; and on each side of that descriptive-prescriptive axis proper, there are multiple fields separated not only along the theoretical-applied axis, but also along a third axis from what is real, moral, knowable, or just, to who are the subjects and institutions of reality, morality, knowledge, and justice.

In this section of this study guide, we will proceed from the theoretical to the applied, on both the descriptive and prescriptive sides of things, and addressing both the what and the who questions as we go.

• Logic ( WP ) is about the structure of and relationships between propositions, and so relates both to linguistic issues and mathematical issues.
• Rhetoric ( WP ) is about the style and presentation of speech acts, and so relates both to linguistic issues and aesthetic issues.


• Philosophy of mathematics ( SEP | WP ) is concerned with philosophical issues regarding mathematics, of course, and has significant overlap with both ontology and logic.
• Aesthetics ( IEP | WP ) is the topic concerned with beauty and philosophical issues regarding art, and has significant overlap with both axiology and rhetoric.


• Ontology ( WP ) is the topic concerned with what exists.
• Axiology ( SEP | WP ) is the topic concerned with what is of value.


• Epistemology ( SEP | IEP | WP ) is the topic concerned with knowledge, or when and which thoughts or beliefs are justified or warranted, and why.
• Justice ( SEP | IEP | WP ) is about when and which acts or intentions are justified or warranted, and why.


• Philosophy of mind ( WP ) is concerned with the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the implications of that on what is or isn't real.
• Free will ( SEP | IEP | WP ) is about the agency underlying our behavior, self-control, and how that relates to moral responsibility.


• Philosophy of education ( SEP | WP ) is concerned with descriptive authority, about who gets to say what is the case or not. It is a major motive for concerns with enlightenment.
• Political philosophy ( IEP | WP ) is concerned with prescriptive authority, about who gets to say what ought to be the case or not. It is a major motive for concerns with empowerment.


• Enlightenment ( WP ) is a topic closely related to meaningfulness in life, but focusing more on the descriptive side, about inspiring the mind to actively pursue the truth, the real, the knowable, and so to become fully fully conscious or self-aware.
• Empowerment ( WP ) is a topic closely related to meaningfulness in life, but focusing more on the prescriptive side, about inspiring the will to actively pursue the good, the moral, or the just, and so to become fully free or self-directed.