The 6 most important differences between psychology and philosophy

Robert Golding
4 min readFeb 4, 2024

How exactly are these two specialties different?

It is easy to confuse psychology with philosophy, perhaps because both can be applied in the most diverse fields and address topics that go beyond what is physical and static over time . There is a vague idea that both can offer advice and offer rules, behavioral guides and life lessons, but knowing where one field of study begins and the other ends is not so simple.

But this does not mean that there are no clear lines separating each field of research and application . Here I suggest six differences between psychology and philosophy that can help you better orient yourself in these types of problems.

  • Related article: “The Eight Branches of Philosophy (and Their Main Thinkers)”

The main differences between philosophy and psychology

This is a summary of ideas to consider when distinguishing between philosophy and psychology.

1. They learn differently

Teaching psychology is based on methodologies that incorporate very specific tools that go beyond careful reading of texts: experimentation with volunteers, observation of body parts under a microscope, use of statistical software, etc.

Philosophy, although it can also use some tools like those mentioned, does not have such a broad consensus

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Robert Golding

Those who live twice as fast can enjoy double the opportunities in life.