Everything about Natural Philosophy totally explained
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For the current in the 19th century German idealism, see Naturphilosophie
Natural philosophy or the
philosophy of nature, known in
Latin as
philosophia naturalis, is a term applied to the
objective study of
nature and the physical
universe that was dominant before the development of
modern science. It is considered the precursor of what is now called
natural science, especially
physics.
Forms of
science historically developed out of
philosophy or more specifically natural philosophy. At older
universities, long-established Chairs of Natural Philosophy are nowadays occupied mainly by physics
professors. Modern notions of
science and
scientists date only to the 19th century (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary dates the origin of the word "scientist" to 1834). Before then, the word "science" simply meant knowledge and the label of
scientist didn't exist.
Isaac Newton's 1687 scientific treatise is known as
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.
Origin and evolution of the term
Natural philosophy was the term describing a field of study whose usage preceded our current term
natural science (from
scientia in Latin, which means "knowledge") when the subject of that knowledge or study was "the workings of nature". Natural philosophy pertains to the work of analysis and synthesis of common experience and argumentation attempting to explain or describe nature, while the term
science in the 16th century and prior was also used, and used exclusively, as a synonym for knowledge or study. The term "science", as in "natural science", gained the meaning of science in the modern sense when knowledge acquisition through
experiments (special experiences) regulated by the
scientific method became its own specialized branch of study over and above natural philosophy.
In the 18th and 19th centuries,
natural philosophy referred to what is now called
physical science. From the mid-19th century, when it became increasingly unusual for scientists to contribute to both
physics and
chemistry, it just meant
physics, and is still used in that sense in degree titles at the
University of Oxford. Natural philosophy was distinguished from the other pre-cursor of modern science,
natural history, in that the former involved reasoning and explanations about nature (and after
Galileo,
quantitative reasoning), whereas the latter was essentially
qualitative and descriptive.
Scope of natural philosophy
In what is thought to be one of
Plato's earliest dialogues,
Charmides, the distinction is drawn between sciences or bodies of knowledge which produce a physical result, and those which do not. Natural philosophy has been categorized as a theoretical rather than a practical branch of philosophy (like ethics). Sciences that guide arts and which draw upon the philosophical knowledge of nature can of course produce many practical results, but these subsidiary sciences (for example architecture or medicine) are considered to go beyond natural philosophy.
The study of natural philosophy presupposes that
change is a reality. Although this may seem obvious, there have been some philosophers who have denied change, such as Plato's teacher
Parmenides and later Greek philosopher
Sextus Empiricus and perhaps some Eastern philosophers as well.
George Santayana in his
Scepticism and Animal Faith attempted to show that the reality of change can't be proven. Beginning with
Schelling, the mode of change studied in natural philosophy has been development, rather than evolution. Development is predictable directional change, while evolution is the irreversible accumulation of historically mediated information.
In
René Descartes'
metaphysical system of
dualism, there are two kinds of substance: matter and mind. According to this system, everything which is "matter" is
deterministic and natural—and so belongs to natural philosophy—and everything which is "mind" is
volitional and non-natural, and falls outside the domain of philosophy of nature.
Branches and subject matter of natural philosophy
Major branches of natural philosophy include
astronomy and
cosmology, the study of nature on the grand scale;
etiology, the study of (intrinsic and sometimes extrinsic)
causes; the study of
chance, probability and randomness; the study of
elements; the study of the
infinite and the unlimited (virtual or actual); the study of
matter;
mechanics, the study of translation of motion and change; the study of
nature or the various sources of actions; the study of natural
qualities; the study of physical
quantities; the study of
relations between physical entities; and the
philosophy of space and time. (Adler, 1993)
History of natural philosophy
» See History of physics and History of chemistry for the history of natural philosophy prior to the 17th century.
Figures in natural philosophy
While proposals for a much more 'inquisitive' and practical approach to the study of nature originated with
Francis Bacon,
Robert Boyle wrote what is considered to be a seminal work on the distinction between nature and
metaphysics called
A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature. This book, written in 1686, marked the point where the scene was set for natural philosophy to turn into science. It represented a radical departure from the
scholasticism of the
Middle Ages, and while features of natural philosophy retained some of the trappings of the
elitism associated with its precursor, natural philosophy was arguably
empirical while previous attempts to describe
nature were not. An important distinguishing characteristic of science and natural philosophy is the fact that natural philosophers generally didn't feel compelled to test their ideas in a practical way. Instead, they
observed phenomena and came up with 'philosophical' conclusions.
Boyle, while he's the first to fully embrace such an approach in both his experimental endeavours and his writings, shares with Bacon (and
Galileo who was the inspiration in these matters for both Bacon and Boyle) a conviction that practical experimental observation was the key to a more satisfactory understanding of nature than would have otherwise been sought through either exclusive reference to received authority or a purely speculative approach.
Although Galileo's 'natural philosophy' is hardly distinguishable from science in many ways, the connection between his experiments and his writings about them is characteristically philosophical, rather than being cluttered with the results of meticulously recorded observational detail of practical scientific research, in the way that Boyle subsequently advocated.
Even though Boyle described what he practiced as 'natural philosophy', the very innovations that Boyle introduced can be seen as a basis for delineating a transition from proto-science to science. Among these innovations are an insistence upon the publication of detailed experimental results, including the results of unsuccessful experiments; and also a requirement for the replication of experiments as a means of validating observational claims.
Thus Boyle's application of the term 'natural philosophy' to his own work may be regarded an anachronistic conflation with earlier proto-science, since the distinction between the terms 'natural philosophy' and 'science' only arose after Boyle's passing.
Boyle would therefore describe his work as 'natural philosophy', whereas we'd describe it as 'science'; and yet Boyle's use was correct for his own time. Nonetheless, he's in many ways the architect of the modern distinction between the two terms.
The ancient emphasis on deduction has its representative in Aristotle's
Organum, and the new emphasis on induction and research has its representative in
Francis Bacon's treatise
Novum Organum.
In popular culture
The writer Nat Hillard maintains a weekly column for the Stanford Daily newspaper entitled "Nat-ural Philosophy".
Nat-ural Philosophy
Novelist Neal Stephenson focuses on a number of real and fictional natural philosophers (including Isaac Newton, who is a major supporting character) in his trilogy "The Baroque Cycle".
(External Link)Further Information
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