Philosophical study of the natural world gave rise to the physical sciences of our day: physics, astronomy, geology, biology, and chemistry. Although other cultures (for example, China), have had distinctive sciences and technology, Western technology, as a product of Western science, has had global predominance in the modern period.

Philosophical study of the human world gave rise to the social sciences of psychology, history, political science, sociology, and anthropology, as well as linguistics and cognitive science. Of course, many theoretical ideas about the world remain in philosophy as metaphysics, and many human questions are still only considered in philosophy, insofar as it is part of the humanities. These human questions are of universal interest across cultures and in ordinary, practical, daily life.