In the era of industrial and technological progress, philosophy has receded into the background, not every person can clearly answer the question of what kind of science it is and what it does. People are busy with pressing problems; they are little interested in philosophical categories divorced from life. Does this mean that philosophy has lost its relevance and is no longer needed?
Philosophy is defined as a science that studies the root causes and principles of all things. In this sense, it is one of the most important sciences for humans, as it is trying to find an answer to the question about the cause of human existence. Why does a person live, why is this life given to him? The answer to this question also determines the paths that a person chooses.
Being a truly comprehensive science, philosophy includes a variety of disciplines and tries to find answers to important questions for human life - is there God, what is good and evil, questions of old age and death, the possibilities of objective knowledge of reality, etc. etc. We can say that the natural sciences give an answer to the question “how?”, While philosophy is trying to find the answer to the question “why?”
It is believed that the term "philosophy" was coined by Pythagoras, translated from Greek, it means "love of wisdom." It should be noted that, unlike other sciences, in philosophy no one is obliged to base their reasoning on the experience of predecessors. Freedom, including freedom of thought, is one of the key concepts for the philosopher.
Philosophy arose independently in Ancient China, Ancient India and Ancient Greece, from where it began to spread throughout the world. The classification of the current philosophical disciplines and trends is quite complex and not always unambiguous. The general philosophical disciplines include metaphilosophy, or philosophy of philosophy. There are philosophical disciplines exploring the methods of cognition: logic, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science. Theoretical philosophy includes ontology, metaphysics, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of nature, natural theology, philosophy of spirit, philosophy of consciousness, social philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophy of language. Practical philosophy, sometimes called the philosophy of life (axiology), includes ethics, aesthetics, praxeology (philosophy of activity), social philosophy, geophilosophy, philosophy of religion, law, education, history, politics, economy, technology, ecology. There are other areas of philosophy, you can get acquainted with the full list by looking at specialized philosophical literature.
Despite the fact that the new century seems to leave philosophy with little space, its practical significance does not decrease at all - humanity is still looking for answers to the questions of life that concern it. And the answer to these questions depends on the path that human civilization will take in its development.
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