Nature & Branches of Philosophy
दर्शनशास्त्र की प्रकृति और शाखाएँ
What philosophy is
The word — 'philosophy' comes from the Greek philos (love) and sophia (wisdom): the love of wisdom. The Indian word darshana comes from the root dṛś, 'to see' — philosophy as a vision of reality, to be realised and lived, not only argued.
What philosophers do — they ask the most general questions and examine them by reason:
How philosophy differs
| Compared with | Philosophy |
|---|---|
| science | science studies particular parts of nature by observation and experiment; philosophy asks about the assumptions of science itself — what counts as evidence, what causation is |
| religion | religion often rests on faith and revelation; philosophy tests every claim by reason — though Indian philosophy treats scripture (shabda) as one source of knowledge |
| common sense | philosophy questions what common sense takes for granted |
Indian and Western emphasis — Western philosophy has been largely theoretical, seeking knowledge for its own sake; Indian philosophy has been largely practical — most schools aim at moksha, freedom from suffering and rebirth, and treat knowledge as the path to it.
The trap: darshana means seeing — direct vision of the truth — not 'argument' or 'scripture'; it is the Indian name for a school of philosophy.
दर्शनशास्त्र की प्रकृति और शाखाएँ
The branches of philosophy
| Branch | Studies | Typical question |
|---|---|---|
| metaphysics | the ultimate nature of reality — being, substance, mind and matter, God, causation | Is the world ultimately one or many? |
| — ontology | being as such | What does it mean for something to exist? |
| — cosmology | the origin and order of the universe | Did the world have a beginning? |
| epistemology | the nature, sources and limits of knowledge | Can the senses be trusted? |
| logic | the principles of correct reasoning | Does this conclusion follow from these premises? |
| ethics | right conduct, the good life, moral values | Is lying always wrong? |
| aesthetics | beauty and art | Is beauty in the object or in the eye of the beholder? |
| philosophy of mind | the mind, consciousness, the mind–body relation | How do thoughts move the body? |
| philosophy of religion | God, faith, evil | Can God's existence be proved? |
| social and political philosophy | justice, rights, the state | What makes a government legitimate? |
In Indian terms — tattva-mimamsa (metaphysics), pramana-mimamsa or jnana-mimamsa (epistemology), tarka-shastra or nyaya (logic), niti-shastra (ethics), saundarya-shastra (aesthetics), with the rasa theory of Bharata's Natyashastra at its heart.
The trap: epistemology is about knowledge — how we know; metaphysics is about reality — what there is. A question on the 'sources of valid knowledge' always belongs to epistemology.
दर्शनशास्त्र की प्रकृति और शाखाएँ
How do we know? — the theories of knowledge
Western views
| View | Claim | Thinkers |
|---|---|---|
| rationalism | the most certain knowledge comes from reason; some ideas are innate | Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz |
| empiricism | all knowledge comes from sense experience; the mind begins as a blank slate | Locke, Berkeley, Hume |
| critical philosophy | knowledge needs both — the senses give the material, the mind gives the form ('thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind') | Kant |
| scepticism | certain knowledge may be impossible | Hume (on causation) |
| pragmatism | an idea is true if it works in practice | William James, John Dewey |
Indian views — the pramanas (valid means of knowledge)
| Pramana | Meaning | Accepted by |
|---|---|---|
| pratyaksha | perception | all schools — the only one for the Charvaka |
| anumana | inference | Buddhists and Vaisheshika (with perception); Samkhya, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta and others |
| upamana | comparison | Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta |
| shabda | verbal testimony — reliable words, scripture | Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta |
| arthapatti | postulation — 'fat Devadatta does not eat by day', so he eats at night | Mimamsa, Vedanta |
| anupalabdhi | non-perception — knowing that the jar is not on the floor | Bhatta Mimamsa, Advaita |
Counting the pramanas — Charvaka 1; Buddhists and Vaisheshika 2; Samkhya and Yoga 3; Nyaya 4; Prabhakara Mimamsa 5; Bhatta Mimamsa and Advaita 6.
The trap: the Charvaka accept perception alone — they reject even inference, which is why they denied anything beyond the visible world.
दर्शनशास्त्र की प्रकृति और शाखाएँ
The methods of philosophy — and the tradition of debate
Philosophical methods
| Method | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Socratic dialogue | question-and-answer that exposes contradictions in a belief and leads towards a clearer definition | Socrates questioning what 'justice' means |
| analysis | breaking a concept or statement into its parts to make its meaning clear | 20th-century analytic philosophy |
| dialectic | thesis, antithesis, synthesis — ideas developing through opposition | Hegel |
| methodic doubt | doubting everything that can be doubted, to reach what cannot | Descartes |
| purva-paksha and uttara-paksha | stating the opponent's view fully and fairly, then answering it | the method of Indian philosophical texts |
The Indian tradition of shastrartha — formal public debate between scholars, with judges and rules; three kinds were recognised in Nyaya: vada (honest discussion to find the truth), jalpa (debate to win) and vitanda (only attacking the other side).
Debate in Bihar's history
The trap: in the purva-paksha method the opponent's view is stated first, in its strongest form — the author's own view, the siddhanta, comes after.
दर्शनशास्त्र की प्रकृति और शाखाएँ
Points to Remember