Philosophy 101 Question: Grouping of Philosophers

[diebitter]

I used to read a lot about philosphy, but haven't really done anything it 15 years.

To my mind, there are two branches of 'Philosophers'

- Those who think about 'thinking' (eg Aristotle)
- Those who meditate on who we conduct ourselves and how they consider things (eg Neitzche, Marcus Aurelius)


Is this grouping valid? Are there other groups?

[cambraceres]

The valid divisions are the temporal ones, the divisions you mentioned are so intertwined as to be the same.

Cam

[guesswest]

I'm not really sure what those distinctions are meant to represent. 'Thinking about thinking' would probably be philosophy of mind? - which is a fairly small, but very interesting, branch of philosophy. How we conduct ourselves would be ethics, which is a bigger branch of philosophy with a longer history. 'How they consider things' seems to be every philosopher. The single biggest/bulkiest branch of philosophy is probably epistemology/metaphysics.

[JonTheFox]

no, that is a poor categorization

lots of philosophers don't strictly fit into one of those things and lots of them would "fit into" both

[madnak]

What exactly do you mean by "think about 'thinking'?" I think the biggest general division among philosophers is that some believe in structuring their views according to a rigid logical system, and some don't. That difference is clear between, for example, Western and Eastern or analytic and continental philosophers.

I'd say that most philosophers from all time periods and areas could be considered to fall under both of the categories you've suggested, if I understand them.

Guesswest - why do you consider epistemology and metaphysics to be a single branch of philosophy? I haven't had much formal training in the subject, but I was always under the impression they were considered distinct branches.

[guesswest]

I wasn't really suggesting they were the same thing, it was meant as an 'and/or' type statement - I can see why you read it that way though, poor phrasing on my part. That said, I do think there's a fair bit of crossover between the two with issues like perception, identity etc.

[diebitter]

It looks to me, from the responses, my thinking on philosophers is cloudy. I always grouped them in my own head as 'real philosophers' (ie thinking about thinking, reasoning processes, use of logic etc), and those called Philosophers cos they put a lot of thought into the human conditions, such as Mill, Neitzche, Marcus Aurelius.

I think it's just cloudy thinking brought on by sleep deprivation and the busy-ness of life, and I need to immerse myself back in it.

thanks all,
db

[ElaineMonster]

Branches of philosophy... Well, you know, philosophy is the mother science of ALL sciences. So, in essence, every science is a branch of philosophy. However, I think you mean the commonly recognized branches, in which case I would say there are five:
Metaphysics
Ethics
Aesthetics
Politics
Epistemology
But, [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] of course, others disagree.

[hmkpoker]

Males and non-males. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[bisonbison]

The proper word for a group of philosophers in the wild is a "herd"