Photography: Gabba Gabba Hey!
Philosophy is a multifaceted subject with a very long history. Philosophy seperated itself from a mythological understanding of the world during the 6th century B.C. when a number of Greek thinkers tried to understand the ordering of the world without seing it through a lens of gods and heroes. The main branches of philosophy established in Athens during the 5th and 6th centuries are still in use today in various shapes: Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics. Likewise, the works of the great thinkers of the time such as Plato and Aristotle are still the subject of great debate - often on an equal footing with far more recent works. In modern times, the classical main branches of philosophy have split into a number of different sub-categories - e.g. philosophy of mind and philosophy of technology. It is hard to define what unites all branches of philosophy under a single subject. A good guess would be respect for the good argument and the will to reach the bottom of any given problem - primarily out of intellectual curiosity. It is no coincidence that many have viewed philosophy as an activity born out of man's wondering about ourselves and our place in the world.