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Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with Hellenic (i.e. Greek) philosophy, and eventually covering a large area of the globe. The word ''philosophy'' itself originated from the Hellenic: ''philosophia'' (φιλοσοφία), literally, "the love of wisdom" (φιλεῖν ''philein'', "to love" and σοφία ''sophia'', "wisdom"). The scope of philosophy in the ancient understanding, and the writings of (at least some of) the ancient philosophers, were ''all'' intellectual endeavors. This included the problems of philosophy as they are understood today; but it also included many other disciplines, such as pure mathematics and natural sciences such as physics, astrology, and biology (Aristotle, for example, wrote on all of these topics.) ==Western philosophical subdisciplines== Western philosophers have often been divided into some major branches, or schools, based either on the questions typically addressed by people working in different parts of the field, or notions of ideological undercurrents. In the ancient world, the most influential division of the subject was the Stoics' division of philosophy into Logic, Ethics, and Physics (conceived as the study of the nature of the world, and including both natural science and metaphysics). In contemporary philosophy, specialties within the field are more commonly divided into metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics (the latter two of which together comprise axiology). Logic is sometimes included as a main branch of philosophy, sometimes as a separate science philosophers happen to work on, and sometimes just as a characteristically philosophical method applying to all branches of philosophy. Within these broad branches there are now numerous sub-disciplines of philosophy. At the broadest level there is the division between Analytic (the English-speaking world and Nordic countries) and Continental Philosophy (in the rest of Europe). For Continental Philosophy subdividing philosophy between "experts" is problematic for the very nature of the interdisciplinary task of philosophy itself; however, for most of Analytic Philosophy further divisions simplify the task for philosophers in each area. The interest in particular sub-disciplines waxes and wanes over time; sometimes sub-disciplines become particularly hot topics and can occupy so much space in the literature that they almost seem like major branches in their own right. (Over the past 40 years or so philosophy of mind—which is, generally speaking, mainly a sub-discipline of metaphysics—has taken on this position within Analytic philosophy, and has attracted so much attention that some suggest philosophy of mind as ''the'' paradigm for what contemporary Analytic philosophers do). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Western philosophy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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