The Map
The Map of Philosophy
Every question philosophy asks, one card each: what the question is, the rival answers, who gave them and where, and how it connects to the rest. 131 questions under six roots, from The Coordinates of Thought.
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Root I — Metaphysics
What exists, and what is it like?
- 1.3 Philosophy of Mind What is a mind, and how does it relate to the body and the world?
- 1.3.1 The Mind–Body Problem How can a thought move an arm?
- 1.3.2 Personal Identity Are you the same person you were at five?
- 1.3.3 Intentionality How can one thing be about another thing?
- 1.3.4 Qualia and the Hard Problem △ contested Why isn't it all dark inside?
Root II — Epistemology
What can be known, and how?
- 2.2 Sources of Knowledge Which ways of finding things out actually work?
- 2.2.1 Perception When you see a tree, what are you actually seeing?
- 2.2.2 Reason and Intuition How, if at all, do you know that a surface cannot be wholly red and wholly green at the same time and in the same respect?
- 2.2.3 Memory Is remembering a kind of perceiving, or a kind of imagining?
- 2.2.4 Testimony Do you need a reason to trust, or a reason not to?
- 2.2.5 Revelation △ contested Can something be known because it was disclosed rather than discovered?
Root III — Ethics and Axiology
What is good, and what should I do?
- 3.1 Meta-Ethics When you say cruelty is wrong, what kind of statement are you making?
- 3.1.1 Moral Realism vs Anti-Realism If everyone approved of torturing children, would it still be wrong?
- 3.1.2 Moral Semantics Does "wrong" describe an act, or do something to the listener?
- 3.1.3 Moral Epistemology How would you check whether a moral claim is true?
- 3.1.4 Moral Motivation Can you know an act is wrong and be entirely unmoved?
- 3.2 Normative Ethics What should I look at to tell whether an act is right?
- 3.2.1 Consequence-Based Approaches If an act produces the best outcome, can it be wrong?
- 3.2.2 Duty-Based Approaches Are some things wrong even when they would do good?
- 3.2.3 Character-Based Approaches Should ethics ask what to do, or who to be?
- 3.2.4 Contract-Based Approaches Could you justify this to everyone it affects?
- 3.2.5 Care and Relational Approaches Does morality start with rules, or with the people you are responsible for?
- 3.2.6 Divine Command Approaches How does a command create an obligation?
- 3.3 Applied Ethics What should be done in this case?
- 3.3.1 Bioethics and Medical Ethics △ contested Who counts, who decides, and who gets it?
- 3.3.2 Environmental Ethics Does a forest matter only because people value it?
- 3.3.3 Business and Economic Ethics Does a company owe anything to anyone but its owners?
- 3.3.4 Ethics of Technology and AI Who is responsible when a machine causes harm and no one intended it?
- 3.3.5 War and Political Violence △ contested Can killing be permitted when it would otherwise be murder?
- 3.3.6 Animal Ethics What is it about humans that makes us count?
Root IV — Logic
What follows validly from what?
- 4.1 Formal Logic What makes an argument work, regardless of its subject?
- 4.1.1 Propositional Logic What follows from "if this, then that"?
- 4.1.2 Predicate Logic Why could two thousand years of logic not handle "every boy loves some girl"?
- 4.1.3 Syllogistic Logic What follows from two statements about classes of things?
- 4.2 Informal Logic Why does formal logic tell you so little about whether an argument is any good?
- 4.2.1 Fallacies When is a bad-looking argument actually bad?
- 4.2.2 Argumentation Theory What does an argument have to do, besides be valid?
- 4.2.3 Rhetoric Is persuading someone different from giving them a reason?
Root V — Aesthetics
What is beauty, and why does art move us?
Root VI — The Philosophy of X Family
The questions above, aimed at one part of life.
- 6.4 Political Philosophy △ contested When is political power legitimate, and what may it rightly do?
- 6.4.1 Distributive Justice △ contested Who should get what — and why?
- 6.4.2 Rights and Liberty Are you free when nobody stops you, or when you could actually do it?
- 6.4.3 Sovereignty and the State Who holds final authority, and what makes it final?
- 6.8 Philosophy of Science What makes a claim scientific?
- 6.8.1 Scientific Explanation When have you explained something, rather than just described it?
- 6.8.2 Scientific Realism Do electrons exist, or do they just work?
- 6.8.3 Scientific Revolutions Does science build on what came before, or replace it?