In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life s most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study. At its core the study of metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality, of what exists in the world, what it is like, and how it is ordered.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
It is primarily concerned with what we can know about the world and how we can know it. The study of ethics often concerns what we ought to do and what it would be best to do. In struggling with this issue, larger questions about what is good and right arise. Another important aspect of the study of philosophy is the arguments or reasons given for people s answers to these questions. To this end philosophers employ logic to study the nature and structure of arguments.