A branch of philosophy is one of the discipline's own recognized areas of inquiry: the core branches of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, aesthetics and political philosophy alongside philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science and philosophy of language, together with the growing set of applied and interdisciplinary subfields such as philosophy of law, philosophy of biology and philosophy of technology. Branches are the category anchors every philosopher, school, work and argument or position on this atlas is placed against; they are not themselves grouped into a further subcategory tier, since they are the tier the rest of the structure is built from.