The modern division of philosophy into theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy[Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 41 ("On Universal Practical Philosophy"). Original text: Immanuel Kant, Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften, Band XXVII – Moralphilosophie, 1. Hälfte, 1974, p. 243.][Albert Schwegler, A History of Philosophy in Epitome, D. Appleton, 1877, p. 312.] has its origin in Aristotle's categories of natural philosophy and moral philosophy.[Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book 1.] The one has theory for its object, and the other Practical reason.[
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Overview
In Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States, courses in theoretical and practical philosophy are taught separately, and are separate degrees. Other countries may use a similar scheme—some Scotland universities, for example, divide philosophy into logic, metaphysics, and ethics—but in most universities around the world philosophy is taught as a single subject. There is also a unified philosophy subject in some Swedish universities, such as Södertörns Högskola.
Theoretical philosophy is sometimes confused with analytic philosophy, but the latter is a philosophical movement, embracing certain ideas and methods but dealing with all philosophical subject matters, while the former is a way of sorting philosophical questions into two different categories in the context of a curriculum.
Subjects of theoretical philosophy