• Theory of Reality : Ontology & Metaphysics.
• Theory of Knowledge: Epistemology--from episteme and logos.
• Theory of Value: Axiology--from the Greek axios (worth, value) and logos.

• Are the basic things substances--self-contained, self-sufficient and eternal
• Or are they changing processes, interdependent upon one another?
• Substance philosophy dominates both Asian and Euro-American philosophy.

Examples of substances

• God: eternal and unchanging
• souls: eternal and unchanging
• atoms: are not created and cannot be destroyed.

• Europe & America: Heraclitus, Hegel, Bergson, Whitehead, and Hartshorne.
• Asian: Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
• Abrahamic vs. Asian religions.
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Is Reality "Organic" or "Atomistic"?

Were the ancients correct to view both society and reality like a living body, or were modern philosophers right in thinking that we are more like "social" atoms bouncing around in the empty space of society?

Hierarchical vs. egalitarian views of society.

• Materialism: there is only matter and the mind is nothing but brain cells firing.
• Dualism: there is mental substance in addition to material substance.
• Idealism/Mentalism/Spiritualism: the fundamental nature of reality is mind or spirit. Matter is derivative or an illusion.
• Neutral Monism (Gk. monas=one): fundamental nature of reality is neither mind nor matter--perhaps energy?

• What is the relationship between reason, the will, the emotions, and the imagination?
• Are humans intrinsically good, evil, combination of the two, or neither?
• Is the will free or is determined by antecedent causes and conditions (determinism)?
• Is the soul immortal? Is there an afterlife or is this life all there is?

• How and what can we know?
• Rationalism: True knowledge already exists in the human soul as "innate" knowledge.
• Plato takes the most radical position on this issue, but Aristotle stands as a compromise between rationalism and empiricism.
• Empiricism: Knowledge comes primarily from experience and the five senses.
• Epicurus, John Locke, and David Hume.
• Locke believed that our minds are like "blank tablets," and experience "writes" on our minds like we write on a blackboard. For him there is no innate knowledge.

• Ethics: value for the individual--"What ought I do as an individual?"
• Social and Political Philosophy: value for society--"What ought we do together?"
• Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics: the value in the fine arts and natural beauty.