is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language

. Socrates is believed to be the founding father of philosophy, with his contribution to the field of ethics. Our mind is always curious to know things, experience things, wonder, translate, and search for greater meaning; philosophy is the field that helps us get closer to those questions and helps us better understand.

is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge, the origin, scope, validity and nature of knowledge.

After the Renaissance (after 17^th century), empiricism (knowledge is product of sensory reception) and rationalism (knowledge is product of rational reflection) were the positions dominated epistemology. In philosophy, we examine accuracy of our own knowledge, sources and nature to get an informed understanding of what we know and how we know it as well what it is that we don’t know. 

is a theory that consists of mind, minds, ideas or selves and theorizes that reality is primarily mental rather than material.

Mary Baker Eddy (19^th century founder of Christian Science) was an idealist who believed that everything exists within the Mind of God, the only Reality (Christian 10^th Ed.) The goal in philosophy is to exchange and refine ideas by talking about them to gain the truth.

everything in the universe is nothing other than various manifestations of matter-in-motion; matter is the only substance.

The foundation of materialism could be found in the 5^th century by Democritus (Greek philosopher) who states that the world is consists nothing but atoms in empty space which interact with each other and even change shape. Materialism attempts to explain (part of metaphysics) that everything from our mind (motion of material things) to energy involves some physical characteristic (matter).

is the study of knowledge that asserts all knowledge is gathered through our sense experiences.

In the 17^th century, John Locke (doctor and writer) wrote an essay stating that the only knowledge humans can have is a posteriori. In asking questions in the study of philosophy, we use our experience as a basis to judge what we want to know or critically analyze what we do know, that’s empiricism.

a branch of philosophy that is concerned with what actually exists, the true nature of things (Text Christian pg 644).

Greek philosopher Thales (624 BC) was the first known to teach that all things derive from “Ache”. Metaphysics helps us determine in philosophy whether we act on free will, whether the universe has always been here and other questions.

Latin for – I think, there for I am.

in 1637, Rene Descartes (Discourse on Method) attempted to prove that if a person wonders if he actually exists, by thinking, he actually proves he indeed exists (the mind, not the body). As we pursue knowledge we come to the questioning of how do we know what we know and is this all false information; in the Discourse on Method, cogito ergo sum helps us clarify if we are existing before we can question other things reality (reasoning).

in Epistemology, it’s the tradition that holds that our most dependable information derives from reason rather than from empirical observation.

Descartes’ Meditation on First Philosophy in the 17^th century argues that reason alone determined knowledge and could be achieved independently from senses. In the study, we ask can the knowing subject be certain that an object truly exists and if so how can we be sure?

Latin for – blank slate; is the epistemological thesis that states individuals are born without any built-in material and their knowledge comes from experience and perception.

In the 17^th century, John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is used in modern times to understand that the blank slate is the mind that’s built with no rules; data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one’s sensory experiences. In philosophy, we are concerned with how we know what we know, and how to properly gain more knowledge to become wise

in epistemology, knowledge or justification is based on experience or empirical evidence. Immannuel Kant, (18^th century philosopher) believed that this type of is empirical, that it’s based on the content of experience. If we plant a seed and wait for a few occasions of sunrise and sun sets, we might then notice growth from the moment we planted that seed up until the present moment, we could then say we’ve experienced growth in the seed over time.