The Philosophy of Mind asks, among other things, whether the mind is the brain and whether reasons can be causes. The Philosophy of Religion investigates the meaning and justification of religious statements, and the Philosophy of Mathematics is concerned with whether numbers or sets are objects and with the nature of mathematical proof. The study of philosophy, then, crucially involves the study of history of philosophy from the Ancient period throughout the medieval and Modern periods, to what can be loosely described as the Contemporary period. And from Aristotle to Maimonides, from Hume to Moore, philosophers have been trying to articulate the nature of the good and the right. In examining how individuals of different times and cultures have thought about problems much like those that concern us, and in studying the sometimes rather special problems that were of concern to them, students of philosophy at the latter end of the twentieth century can discover their place in intellectual history.
Philosophy is also a particular way, or ways, of thinking.
Philosophical questions are intriguing and hard questions and so philosophical method stresses thoroughness and intellectual generosity - the willingness and ability to grasp another's arguments and respond to them. And, philosophy is as much a matter of writing and speaking as it is a matter of thinking per se. The B.A. in philosophy is not a professional qualification. As the interdisciplinary discipline par excellence , philosophy also maintains and encourages ties with other fields, e.g., Psychology, Linguistics, History, Political Science, Mathematics, Physics, Biology. Philosophical reflection on the nature of explanation, for example, often offers a new perspective on the study of psychology or physics.