When philosophy deals with the theory and practice of determining the truth it is called logic or epistemology.
When it deals with the nature of the good, it is called ethics.
When it deals with the nature of the beautiful it is called aesthetics.
When it deals with what is universal and eternal in relation to what really happens it is called metaphysics.
Philosophers usually find they cannot work in one of these departments without taking up all the others.
In the beginning philosophy included all kinds of social and natural science.
As time went on and knowledge increased the physical sciences broke away.
They became the independent disciplines called chemistry, biology, astronomy, physics and so forth.
Then such social sciences as politics, economics and psychology became separate fields of study.
For this reason modern philosophy has been described as "everything that is left of human knowledge after the specialists have marked off their fields, in other words the whole area of meaning and interpretation.
" Professors of philosophy some times see themselves as specialists in metaphysics, ethics or logic.
But the philosopher as distinguished from the professor of philosophy is still regarded as the wise man who sees life clearly, freshly and whole.
Philosophy is still the endeavor that interprets and combines the great diversity of thought into a single whole well-ordered vision.
I believe we can find many answers in philosophy about the problems of today by going back to the roots of where it all started with Socrates.