During a discussion group in a class some time ago I took some time to describe a basic meaning of some main areas of study. Several people found it helpful and because I think there is a lot of muddled headed thinking about the subject I thought I’d put these out in the blog to aid in thinking. These things make up the core of how we explain the facts about the world so it’s important to think rightly about their use and extent. Each area of study is designed to help in learning about reality to discover and search more deeply into what we know so as to form a true description.
Logic – The study of clear thinking. A search and learning of the ways to really get closer to understanding reality via thought.
Philosophy – The study of knowing certain subjects well ie. Philosophy of science, philosophy of mind. A philosophy is a system of thinking designed to get the person using that system closer to truth. A philosophy can be developed for many areas. Philosophers use logic to develop these systems.
Theology – Theology is the study of God and the things of God. It is a system of thought specifically about God. Christian theology utilizes scripture and logic taking the reality scripture conveys and logically forming a system of thought about God.
Science – A process that empirically studies physically available and testable theories.
History – The study of the past. The historian is to get as close as they can to putting together the source material into a true description of what has happened.
Math – The study of numbers and systems of numbers. Utilizing number systems to solve problems that are number solvable, for instance some scientific theories can utilize Mathematical equations as proofs.