At the deepest level, philosophy always answers four questions - What exists. - How it can be known. - How thought must proceed. - How one ought to live.
- Ontology (Being)
This comes first because every other question presupposes an answer to “what is.”
Here belong questions of existence, unity and multiplicity, identity and difference, being and non-being, actuality and potentiality, becoming, substance and process.
- Cosmology (Order of Being)
Once being is affirmed, the next question is how being is structured as a whole.
Cosmology asks how the One becomes many, how order arises, how levels or dimensions relate, how time, space, causality, and form emerge.
Cosmology includes:
Structure of reality Time and space Causality Levels of reality Unity and multiplicity Microcosm and macrocosm Laws of existence Creation models
- Metaphysics (Principles and Causes)
Only after ontology and cosmology are in place does metaphysics properly appear.
Metaphysics asks why reality is structured as it is, what its first principles are, and what explanatory frameworks apply beyond empirical physics.
Here belong:
First principles Causation beyond mechanics Form, information, number Consciousness as fundamental Metaphysical laws Vibrational or informational models
- Epistemology (Knowledge)
Only now does epistemology properly begin.
Epistemology answers how a being situated in such a reality can know anything at all.
This includes:
Truth Belief Perception Knowledge Limits of reason Skepticism Paradox Subjectivity and objectivity
- Logic and Reason (Structure of Thought)
Logic comes after epistemology in a foundational architecture, not before.
Logic formalizes the constraints under which thinking tracks truth within the given ontology and epistemology.
Here belong:
Reason Logic Definitions Paradox handling Formal and informal reasoning Limits of rationality
Logic does not tell us what is true. It tells us how truth-preserving thought operates.
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- Philosophy of Mind and Experience
This domain examines consciousness, experience, perception, meaning, selfhood, and agency as phenomena within reality.
It sits between metaphysics and ethics.
It asks what kind of beings we are, experientially and structurally.
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- Ethics and Natural Law
Only after reality, knowledge, and mind are clarified does ethics become grounded.
Ethics answers how one ought to act given the nature of reality and the nature of the human being.
Natural Law fits here as a bridge between ontology and ethics.
Justice, virtue, right action, responsibility, freedom, and moral truth belong here.
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- Political Philosophy and Law
Political philosophy is applied ethics.
It concerns collective action, authority, rights, justice, law, sovereignty, and institutional power.
It absolutely belongs under philosophy, but as a derivative domain, not a foundation.
Human law, divine law, courts, jurisdiction, justice, and judgment all sit here naturally once ethics is in place.
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- Education (Paideia)
Education is the philosophy of formation. It asks how a being of this nature, in this reality, can be cultivated to know, act, and live well.
It sits downstream of ontology, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy.
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