CHAPTER TWO

BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy involves a widespread collection and ever-evoking kinds of topics which address our
dynamic world. The major branches of philosophy are Metaphysics that studies reality and
being; Epistemology addressing theory and reality of knowledge; Axiology focusing on
assessment within aesthetics and ethics and Logic reflecting argumentation and reasoning.
(I) METAPHYSICS AS A BRANCH OF PHILOSOPHY

Coined from the Greek words “meta” meaning “after or beyond” and “physics” meaning
“nature” or “physical”. Conceptually, metaphysics was adopted by Andronicus of Rhodes, Greek
philosopher in about 7OBC while editing the works of Aristotle. Metaphysics involve issues and
theory outside nature often referred to as “first philosophy” by Aristotle.
Metaphysics as a branch of philosophy examines the nature of reality focusing on reality of man
as a human and non-human such as God, world, mind soul spirit and so on. Metaphysics
investigates reality as distinct from that which is illusionary. The human thought is central to
everything existing beyond human comprehension and natural appearances. It explains what
lies beyond the physical world of experience. It deals with something which is outside nature
but accounts for events of nature. It is the interpretation of the physical phenomena in terms of
the non-physical.
As a branch of philosophy, metaphysics is usually divided to four aspects namely: ontology,
cosmology, theology and philosophical psychology.
Ontology: Is derived from the Greek words “onto” which means “to be” or beginning” or “root
of things” and “logos” which means “study or science of”. Thus ontology is the study of the
beginning or essence of things. It studies “Being”, what is “to be” or “to exist”. Ontologians
studies Being and Non-being, the kinds of beings as the characteristics of being. Ontology deals,
with problem of being. E.g. origin of human, where does it come from. As the science of being,
its object is Pure Being or Being qua being. The question then is “what is this Beings.”? Being is
both foundation as well as the unity of all beings. Aristotle identifies it with God. God is pure
Being or Being par Excellence to Thomas Aquinas while the scholastic philosophers made a
distinction between necessary being and contingent being. A necessary being owes his
existence to on other being outside himself. A contingent being is not responsible for its own
existence, and does not contain within itself, the sufficient reason for its existence.
Philosophers are divided over this metaphysical issue of reality.
Cosmology: Is derived from the Greek words “cosmos” meaning “universe” and logos” meaning
“Science or study”. Cosmology thus; as an aspect of metaphysics studies the universe. It
focuses on the study of the universe in terms of its origin, its composition and processes. It
examines concepts like man, force, time, space, motion, and causality and so on.
Philosophical Psychology: is derived from the Greek words psyche meaning “mind or soul” and
“logos” meaning “study or science”. Philosophical psychology literally is the science or study of
the human mind. It examines the nature of the human mind, operations and basic
compositions. It is concerned about discovering the causes and motives of human conduct.
Philosophical psychology refers to the mental process relating to ideas about human thought,
development, attitudes, moods, intentions and human needs. Thus, psychology directs and
enables one to understand his/her actions and attitudes.
Theology: comes from the Greek word “Theo” meaning “God” and ‘logos meaning “science or
study”. Theology is the study or science of God. It traces the origin and nature of religion to the
spirit’s search for its source i.e. infinite spirit. This search of the finite spirit for the infinite spirit,
its source, is what constitutes theology or religion (Omoregbe, 1993). Thus, the concept of God
is central to theology. God is such an incomprehensive mystery that different religions conceive
him differently. Philosophers through the ages have been interested in the question as to
whether or not God actually exists. Does God really exist? Philosophers, from Plato to the
present day gave various arguments to prove the existence of God while Nietzsche, the German
philosopher and some radical Christian theologians says God once existed but that he is now
dead.
Problems of Metaphysics
The abstractness of metaphysics has continuing problems generated problems as long as man
exist. All efforts made in the past and present have not been able to solve these problems. The
problems includes: problems of being, problems of permanence and problem of mind-body
interaction.
The Problem of Being: According to Parmenides, whatever that is in existence is being. He went
further to say that being is one, eternal and unchanging. To Aristotle the being is God and is
pure. Thomas Aquinas in religious characteristics of being emphasizes that God is being par
excellence and that man or creature is a being in analogical sense. The above shows that there
are variations of conceptions of being ranging from anything in existence to mystical conception
of a hidden reality which is mysterious, transcendent and is the source of all things.
The problem of Change and Permanence: The problem of change and permanence is one of
the earliest problems of western philosophy. Which of these two elements is primary?
Heraclitus a Greek materialist proclaimed that change is the fundamental characteristics of
existence. Everything in nature is in the state of continuous change, nothing is static — “You
cannot step into the same river twice”. He went further so that the first water has flown away
by the time you stepped into it the second time. To him, there is no lasting feature in life.
Existence is a perpetual change. Everything is constantly changing, moving, developing,
growing, coming into being, passing away and being renewed.
Parmenides held extreme positions which subsequent philosophers tried to reconcile
Parmenides held that permanence was the primary feature. Reality is being to him. What is
cannot change and cannot pass out of existence. What is permanent must remain ever the
same. There is no change but permanence. Reality is existence, it is fixed, unchanging,
unchangeable, cannot alter, move or separate. He says “To be is to exit to exist is to be “Being
is, not-being is not”.
Furthermore, Empedocles of Akragas and Anaxagoras of Clazornenes tried to reconcile the
problem of change and permanence. Anaxagoras postulated that an unlimited number of
material elements constituted the universe. In everything there are particles of every other
thing. They combine to form bodies under the guidance of an independent intelligence called
Nous. The various combinations of the infinite qualitative, variety of primary elements of
matter make up existing things. The elements are the seeds of thing. Nous is the motive force
that guides the union and division of the elements. Change is constantly at work in nature.
Nous introduce order into the universe and dominates the interaction of the basic elements.
Empedocles on the other hand postulated the theory of four elements namely, earth, air, fire
and water. The four elements fundamentally remain constantly the same although they
combine or separate to effect changes in objects.
Plato in a similar manner explaining the reality of both change and permanence postulated two
worlds: the physical world or phenomena world and the world of forms of Neumena. The world
of forms is also called the world of ideas or intelligible world. It is the ideal world where
everything is in its perfect form. The question is ‘What are the forms? Plato says, they are the
universal ideas of things, the essences of things or real nature of things. To him, the things in
the physical world are imperfect copies, imperfect reflections or shadows of the real things in
the world of forms. Individuals things in this world according to Plato come into being and
eventually pass away, their essences in the world of forms never pass away, but neither change
nor die. For example, an individual person keep changing aid later pass away but the essence of
man, the form of man in the bid of form never changes nor dies.
Problem of Mind-Body Interaction: The question of the nature of the human mind and its
relation with the body has long been a controversial issue in the sense that how can the mind
(an immaterial substance) interact with the body (a material) substance? This problem lies
solely in the conception of the mind. For examples, different philosophers have conceived the
mind differently. Philosophers like Plato, Augustine. Aquinas and Descartes sees the mind as a
separate substance which can exist on its own without the body. While philosophers like David
Flume and Bernard Russell denied that the mind is a separate substance which can exist
independently of the body. To them, the mind is nothing other than series of perceptions which
succeed each other in sequence. Beyond this rapid succession of perceptions, there is no entity
that could be called the mind or soul. William James saw the mind as nothing other than a
stream of consciousness. While the epiphenomena lists says the mind is a function of the brain
or a by-product of the brain.

(ii) EPISTEMOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF PHOLOSOPHY

Epistemology also known as Gnoseology refers a branch of philosophy that focuses on theory of
human knowledge. Coined from the Greek words “Episteme” meaning knowledge and “logos”
meaning “science or study”. This deals with human knowledge. It raise questions such as: What
is knowing? What is the nature of knowledge? How do you know that you know? What is the
difference between knowledge and belief (faith)? Thereby studying the nature of human
knowledge, its origin, limits, justification, reliability/unreliability and certainty/uncertainty. It
demands for justification and explanations on how do we know what we know? How can we
prove what we know? How can we justify our knowledge? What is the guarantee of the
certainty of our knowledge? How are we sure that what we claim to know to be true is really
true? All these are skeptical questions. The skeptics have fondly contributed immensely to the
development of epistemology in western philosophy by challenging the basics of knowledge as
well as the claim to know. Epistemology emerged therefore to find answers to the challenges of
the skeptics as well as refuting them.
Skeptism: Is doubt, or denial of the possibility of knowledge. To claim something is to be sure or
certain of that thing. But the skeptics doubted the possibility of certainty. Pyrhho of Ellis (360
— 240 BC): The founder of school of skepticism denied the possibility of certainty in knowledge.
To him, we can never know true nature of things since our mind cannot penetrate into their
inner sphere of truth. Things can only be known the way they appear to us, not the way they
are. However, the importance of skepticism rest in the fact that it reassures us of the extent of
truth or the validity and limits of our knowledge of reality.
What is knowledge?
Empirically speaking, knowledge has to do with experience derived from coming into contact
with objects of knowledge by way of perception. By this we mean, knowledge is acquired.
Fundamentally, knowledge is the same as cognition, the synthesis of all our sensations and
perceptions i.e. the beings with consciousness can only claim to know anything. So, human
consciousness is the foundation of knowledge.
We can them make use of knowledge in these four senses:
a) The identification of an object, person, place or thing i.e. to know something or someone
(e.g. know him)
b) The discovery of facts i.e. know that
c) Acquisition of skill i.e. know how
d) Knowledge by acquaintance i.e. “to know where”, or “to know whether” (Kehinde, 1998).
From the above, the term knowledge” lacks universal definition; definition of knowledge is
given according to the school of thought a philosopher belong to e.g. Socrates is known for this
saying “the only thing I know is that, I know nothing” (Mcdowill. 1973).
Types of Knowledge
1. Empirical Knowledge: is the knowledge acquired through sense perception i.e.
knowledge of the five senses. Hence, sense knowledge is always knowledge of an individual
object, a particular object, not the knowledge of a class or category objects, because sense
organs can only present us with particular concrete object. Here object perceived through the
sense organ is interpreted through the ego (consciousness) from which meaning is derived.
2. Rational Knowledge: Is the knowledge acquire through the sense of reasoning. Reason
is our ability to think, to understand and to form concepts about the objects or facts of our
experiences. On the other hand, reason is likened to evidence given by verbal expression in
attempting to justify an action; explain the observed occurrence of phenomenon of our
experience. If we reason in either of above senses, we are engaging in abstraction or
speculation which involves the mental process of separating the particular features of our
experience from the general ones and later on, express these in the form of statements or as
arguments or judgment. Subjects such as mathematics, philosophy logic are good examples of
rational knowledge e.g. in mathematics, the teacher should not just mark the answer to a
mathematical question wrong, rather should award credit to the logic of steps by which the
student reaches the answer. So also in philosophical practices because philosophers are not
only interested in the final conclusion. For examples, the premise that there is a doctor implies
that there must be a patient or given a premise that a woman is a spinster, it suffices to say that
she is not married. Rational knowledge is thus a law of being inferred.
3. Intuitive Knowledge: Is knowledge derived by intuition that is knowledge acquired
when one comes in contact with the object without necessarily going through the process of
reason. Such knowledge comes by direct insight or by coming as a flash into the mind. In
intuitive knowledge, we do not prove or even acquire what we know, but rather discover it with
ease i.e. simply and suddenly as an insight.
5. Authoritative Knowledge: This is acquired through authority that is to say, it is a way of
knowing by accepting and depending on what someone known to be a specialist on any field of
knowledge has said or written without verification e.g. authorities such as newspaper journals,
textbooks, dictionary, etc. the dictum by Socrates •knowledge is virtue, ignorant is vice” is a
reference in philosophy.
6. A Priori Knowledge: A prior knowledge is the knowledge acquired prior to experience
and independently of experience that is knowledge that is acquire by reason without
experience. Rationalist metaphysicians like Plato. Plotinus, the Stoics, John Scotus, Enugena,
Spinoza. Leibniz. Ficnte. Schelling, Hegel, Schopenbauer, Heidegger etc discussed so many in
theory metaphysics that are not objects of sense-perception or empirical experience.
7. A Posteriori Knowledge: Is a kind of knowledge that is gained through empirical
experience. The empiricists are those who claim that all human knowledge derive from
experience and that there can be knowledge which is not derived from sense experience.
THEORIES OF TRUTH
There are two traditional theories of truth. These are the correspondence theory and
coherence theory. But other theories have been propounded by contemporary philosophers
and these includes pragmatic and performance theories of truth.
Correspondence Theory of Truth: This theory opines that a proposition is true of it corresponds
with objective facts, that is if what the proposition asserts is really the case or if upon
investigation what the proposition asserts can synchronize with things in the world. In essence,
correspondence theory holds that there ought to be a correspondence between what is
asserted by a proposition and what the state of affairs really is. Anything to the contrary cannot
yield truth.
Coherence Theory of Truth: Maintains that a proposition is true if the conclusion of a body of
propositions logically follows from the premises. The theory urges the systematic coherence
between one proposition and a day of positions. Each proposition in a body of positions should
support %x strengthen the others. The truth of one proposition is contained in another. There is
a relation of entailment between one proposition and another, logical proof is the basic quality
of truth.
Pragmatic Theory of Truth: Maintains that a proposition is true if it works practice or leads to
and produces successful results. What is true is what works in practice.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. State the meaning of epistemology.
2. Briefly discuss any five types or sources of knowledge.
3. Write a short note on any three popular theories of truth.