Top Highlights

• "Wonder is very much the affection of a philosopher; for there is no other beginning of philosophy than this." Plato
• Philosophy is not so much about coming up with the answers to fundamental questions as it is about the process of trying to find these answers, using reasoning rather than accepting without question conventional views or traditional authority.
• “What is the nature of whatever it is that exists?”   This is the branch of philosophy we now call metaphysics.
• The area of metaphysics concerned with questions of existence, ontology, is a huge one and forms the basis for much of Western philosophy.   Once philosophers had started to put received wisdom to the test of rational examination, another fundamental question became obvious: “How can we know?” The study of the nature and limits of knowledge forms a...
• 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 for the branch of philosophy known as ethics (or moral philosophy); and the related branch stemming from the question of what constitutes beauty and art is known as ...