User:Gregbard/Philosophy-description

Philosophy in the formal sense is an intellectual endeavor and informally, a way of life.

The two main functions of philosophy in the formal sense are clarification using analysis on the one hand, and the synthesis of coherent interpretations on the other.

The organization of the fields of study within philosophy vary. In a very broad sense there are three main areas of philosophy: metaphysics, which concerns itself with theories of reality; epistemology, which concerns itself with theories of knowledge; and axiology, which concerns itself with theories of value. Under this organization, logic, whose aim is truth; ethics, whose aim is goodness; and aesthetics whose aim is beauty are considered to be a part of axiology. Usually, metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and aesthetics are considered to be the main branches of philosophy.

There are three key relationships which are prevalent in philosophy: The relationship of reality to experience, the relationship of experience to language, and the relationship of to language to reality.