Natural philosophy - Wikipedia Natural philosophy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Philosophical study of nature and physical universe that was a precursor to science. This article is about the philosophical study of nature. For the current in 19th-century German idealism, see Naturphilosophie. A celestial map from the 17th century, by the Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin philosophia naturalis) was the philosophical study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science. It is considered to be the precursor of natural science. From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th century, natural philosophy was the common term for the practice of studying nature. It was in the 19th century that the concept of "science" received its modern shape with new titles emerging such as "biology" and "biologist", "physics" and "physicist" among other technical fields and titles; institutions and communities were founded, and unprecedented applications to and interactions with other aspects of society and culture occurred.[1] Isaac Newton's book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), whose title translates to "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", reflects the then-current use of the words "natural philosophy", akin to "systematic study of nature". Even in the 19th century, a treatise by Lord Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait, which helped define much of modern physics, was titled Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867). In the German tradition, Naturphilosophie (philosophy of nature) persisted into the 18th and 19th century as an attempt to achieve a speculative unity of nature and spirit. Some of the greatest names in German philosophy are associated with this movement, including Goethe, Hegel and Schelling. Naturphilosophie was associated with Romanticism and a view that regarded the natural world as a kind of giant organism, as opposed to the philosophical approach of figures such as John Locke and Isaac Newton who espoused a more mechanical view of the world, regarding it as being like a machine. Contents 1 Origin and evolution of the term 2 Scope 3 Branches and subject matter 4 History 4.1 Medieval philosophy of motion 4.2 Aristotle's philosophy of nature 4.3 Other significant figures in natural philosophy 5 Current work in the philosophy of science and nature 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Origin and evolution of the term[edit] The term natural philosophy preceded current usage of natural science (i.e. empirical science). Empirical science historically developed out of philosophy or, more specifically, natural philosophy. Natural philosophy was distinguished from the other precursor of modern science, natural history, in that natural philosophy involved reasoning and explanations about nature (and after Galileo, quantitative reasoning), whereas natural history was essentially qualitative and descriptive. In the 14th and 15th centuries, natural philosophy was one of many branches of philosophy, but was not a specialized field of study. The first person appointed as a specialist in Natural Philosophy per se was Jacopo Zabarella, at the University of Padua in 1577. Modern meanings of the terms science and scientists date only to the 19th century. Before that, science was a synonym for knowledge or study, in keeping with its Latin origin. The term gained its modern meaning when experimental science and the scientific method became a specialized branch of study apart from natural philosophy.[2] From the mid-19th century, when it became increasingly unusual for scientists to contribute to both physics and chemistry, "natural philosophy" came to mean just physics, and the word is still used in that sense in degree titles at the University of Oxford.[citation needed] In general, chairs of Natural Philosophy established long ago at the oldest universities are nowadays occupied mainly by physics professors. Isaac Newton's book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), whose title translates to "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", reflects the then-current use of the words "natural philosophy", akin to "systematic study of nature". Even in the 19th century, a treatise by Lord Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait, which helped define much of modern physics, was titled Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867). Greek philosophers defined it as the combination of beings living in the universe, ignoring things made by humans.[3] The other definition refers to human nature.[3] Scope[edit] In Plato's earliest known dialogue, Charmides distinguishes between science or bodies of knowledge that produce a physical result, and those that do not. Natural philosophy has been categorized as a theoretical rather than a practical branch of philosophy (like ethics). Sciences that guide arts and draw on the philosophical knowledge of nature may produce practical results, but these subsidiary sciences (e.g., architecture or medicine) go beyond natural philosophy. The study of natural philosophy seeks to explore the cosmos by any means necessary to understand the universe. Some ideas presuppose that change is a reality. Although this may seem obvious, there have been some philosophers who have denied the concept of metamorphosis, such as Plato's predecessor Parmenides and later Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, and perhaps some Eastern philosophers. George Santayana, in his Scepticism and Animal Faith, attempted to show that the reality of change cannot be proven. If his reasoning is sound, it follows that to be a physicist, one must restrain one's skepticism enough to trust one's senses, or else rely on anti-realism. René Descartes' metaphysical system of mind–body dualism describes two kinds of substance: matter and mind. According to this system, everything that is "matter" is deterministic and natural—and so belongs to natural philosophy—and everything that is "mind" is volitional and non-natural, and falls outside the domain of philosophy of nature. Branches and subject matter[edit] 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[edit] For the history of natural philosophy prior to the 17th century, see History of science, History of physics, History of chemistry, and History of astronomy. Humankind's mental engagement with nature certainly predates civilization and the record of history. Philosophical, and specifically non-religious thought about the natural world, goes back to ancient Greece. These lines of thought began before Socrates, who turned from his philosophical studies from speculations about nature to a consideration of man, viz., political philosophy. The thought of early philosophers such as Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Democritus centered on the natural world. In addition, three Presocratic philosophers who lived in the Ionian town of Miletus (hence the Milesian School of philosophy), Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, attempted to explain natural phenomena without recourse to creation myths involving the Greek gods. They were called the physikoi ("natural philosophers") or, as Aristotle referred to them, the physiologoi. Plato followed Socrates in concentrating on man. It was Plato's student, Aristotle, who, in basing his thought on the natural world, returned empiricism to its primary place, while leaving room in the world for man.[4] Martin Heidegger observes that Aristotle was the originator of conception of nature that prevailed in the Middle Ages into the modern era: The Physics is a lecture in which he seeks to determine beings that arise on their own, τὰ φύσει ὄντα, with regard to their being. Aristotelian "physics" is different from what we mean today by this word, not only to the extent that it belongs to antiquity whereas the modern physical sciences belong to modernity, rather above all it is different by virtue of the fact that Aristotle's "physics" is philosophy, whereas modern physics is a positive science that presupposes a philosophy.... This book determines the warp and woof of the whole of Western thinking, even at that place where it, as modern thinking, appears to think at odds with ancient thinking. But opposition is invariably comprised of a decisive, and often even perilous, dependence. Without Aristotle's Physics there would have been no Galileo.[5] Aristotle surveyed the thought of his predecessors and conceived of nature in a way that charted a middle course between their excesses.[6] Plato's world of eternal and unchanging Forms, imperfectly represented in matter by a divine Artisan, contrasts sharply with the various mechanistic Weltanschauungen, of which atomism was, by the fourth century at least, the most prominent… This debate was to persist throughout the ancient world. Atomistic mechanism got a shot in the arm from Epicurus… while the Stoics adopted a divine teleology… The choice seems simple: either show how a structured, regular world could arise out of undirected processes, or inject intelligence into the system. This was how Aristotle… when still a young acolyte of Plato, saw matters. Cicero… preserves Aristotle's own cave-image: if troglodytes were brought on a sudden into the upper world, they would immediately suppose it to have been intelligently arranged. But Aristotle grew to abandon this view; although he believes in a divine being, the Prime Mover is not the efficient cause of action in the Universe, and plays no part in constructing or arranging it... But, although he rejects the divine Artificer, Aristotle does not resort to a pure mechanism of random forces. Instead he seeks to find a middle way between the two positions, one which relies heavily on the notion of Nature, or phusis.[7] "The world we inhabit is an orderly one, in which things generally behave in predictable ways, Aristotle argued, because every natural object has a "nature"—an attribute (associated primarily with form) that makes the object behave in its customary fashion..."[8] Aristotle recommended four causes as appropriate for the business of the natural philosopher, or physicist, “and if he refers his problems back to all of them, he will assign the ‘why’ in the way proper to his science—the matter, the form, the mover, [and] ‘that for the sake of which’”. While the vagaries of the material cause are subject to circumstance, the formal, efficient and final cause often coincide because in natural kinds, the mature form and final cause are one and the same. The capacity to mature into a specimen of one's kind is directly acquired from “the primary source of motion”, i.e., from one's father, whose seed (sperma) conveys the essential nature (common to the species), as a hypothetical ratio.[9] Material cause An object's motion will behave in different ways depending on the [substance/essence] from which it is made. (Compare clay, steel, etc.) Formal cause An object's motion will behave in different ways depending on its material arrangement. (Compare a clay sphere, clay block, etc.) Efficient cause That which caused the object to come into being; an "agent of change" or an "agent of movement". Final cause The reason that caused the object to be brought into existence. From the late Middle Ages into the modern era, the tendency has been to narrow "science" to the consideration of efficient or agency-based causes of a particular kind:[10] The action of an efficient cause may sometimes, but not always, be described in terms of quantitative force. The action of an artist on a block of clay, for instance, can be described in terms of how many pounds of pressure per square inch is exerted on it. The efficient causality of the teacher in directing the activity of the artist, however, cannot be so described… The final cause acts on the agent to influence or induce her to act. If the artist works "to make money," making money is in some way the cause of her action. But we cannot describe this influence in terms of quantitative force. The final cause acts, but it acts according to the mode of final causality, as an end or good that induces the efficient cause to act. The mode of causality proper to the final cause cannot itself be reduced to efficient causality, much less to the mode of efficient causality we call "force."[11] Medieval philosophy of motion[edit] Medieval thoughts on motion involved much of Aristotle's works Physics and Metaphysics. The issue that medieval philosophers had with motion was the inconsistency found between book 3 of Physics and book 5 of Metaphysics. Aristotle claimed in book 3 of Physics that motion can be categorized by substance, quantity, quality, and place. where in book 5 of Metaphysics he stated that motion is a magnitude of quantity. This disputation led to some important questions to natural philosophers: Which category/categories does motion fit into? Is motion the same thing as a terminus? Is motion separate from real things? These questions asked by medieval philosophers tried to classify motion.[12] William of Ockham gives a good concept of motion for many people in the Middle Ages. There is an issue with the vocabulary behind motion which makes people think that there is a correlation between nouns and the qualities that make nouns. Ockham states that this distinction is what will allow people to understand motion, that motion is a property of mobiles, locations, and forms and that is all that is required to define what motion is. A famous example of this is Occam's razor which simplifies vague statements by cutting them into more descriptive examples. "Every motion derives from an agent." becomes "each thing that is moved, is moved by an agent" this makes motion a more personal quality referring to individual objects that are moved.[12] Aristotle's philosophy of nature[edit] Main article: Aristotelian physics "An acorn is potentially, but not actually, an oak tree. In becoming an oak tree, it becomes actually what it originally was only potentially. This change thus involves passage from potentiality to actuality — not from non-being to being but from one kind or degree to being another"[8] Aristotle held many important beliefs that started a convergence of thought for natural philosophy. Aristotle believed that attributes of objects belong to the objects themselves, and share traits with other objects that fit them into a category. He uses the example of dogs to press this point. An individual dog may have very specific attributes (ex. one dog can be black and another brown) but also very general ones that classify it as a dog (ex. four-legged). This philosophy can be applied to many other objects as well. This idea is different than that of Plato, with whom Aristotle had a direct association. Aristotle argued that objects have properties "form" and something that is not part of its properties "matter" that defines the object. The form cannot be separated from the matter. Given the example that you can not separate properties and matter since this is impossible, you cannot collect properties in a pile and matter in another.[8] Aristotle believed that change was a natural occurrence. He used his philosophy of form and matter to argue that when something changes you change its properties without changing its matter. This change occurs by replacing certain properties with other properties. Since this change is always an intentional alteration whether by forced means or by natural ones, change is a controllable order of qualities. He argues that this happens through three categories of being: non-being, potential being, and actual being. Through these three states the process of changing an object never truly destroys an objects forms during this transition state but rather just blurs the reality between the two states. An example of this could be changing an object from red to blue with a transitional purple phase.[8] Other significant figures in natural philosophy[edit] Early Greek philosophers studied motion and the cosmos. Figures like Hesiod regarded the Natural world as offspring of the gods, whereas others like Leucippus and Democritus regarded the world as lifeless atoms in a vortex. Anaximander deduced that eclipses happen because of apertures in rings of celestial fire. Heraclitus believed that the heavenly bodies were made of fire that were contained within bowls. He thought that eclipses happen when the bowl turned away from the earth. Anaximenes is believed to have stated that an underlying element was air, and by manipulating air someone could change its thickness to create fire, water, dirt, and stones. Empedocles identified the elements that make up the world which he termed the roots of all things as Fire, Air. Earth, and Water. Parmenides argued that all change is a logical impossibility. He gives the example that nothing can go from nonexistence to existence. Plato argues that the world is an imperfect replica of an idea that a divine craftsman once held. He also believed that the only way to truly know something was through reason and logic not the study of the object itself, but that changeable matter is a viable course of study.[8] The scientific method has ancient precedents and Galileo exemplifies a mathematical understanding of nature which is the hallmark of modern natural scientists. Galileo proposed that objects falling regardless of their mass would fall at the same rate, as long as the medium they fall in is identical. The 19th-century distinction of a scientific enterprise apart from traditional natural philosophy has its roots in prior centuries. Proposals for a more "inquisitive" and practical approach to the study of nature are notable in Francis Bacon, whose ardent convictions did much to popularize his insightful Baconian method. The Baconian method is employed throughout Thomas Browne's encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-72) which debunks a wide-range of common fallacies through empirical investigation of nature. The late 17th-century natural philosopher Robert Boyle wrote a seminal work on the distinction between physics and metaphysics called, A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature, as well as The Skeptical Chymist, after which the modern science of chemistry is named, (as distinct from proto-scientific studies of alchemy). These works of natural philosophy are representative of a departure from the medieval scholasticism taught in European universities, and anticipate in many ways, the developments which would lead to science as practiced in the modern sense. As Bacon would say, "vexing nature" to reveal "her" secrets, (scientific experimentation), rather than a mere reliance on largely historical, even anecdotal, observations of empirical phenomena, would come to be regarded as a defining characteristic of modern science, if not the very key to its success. Boyle's biographers, in their emphasis that he laid the foundations of modern chemistry, neglect how steadily he clung to the scholastic sciences in theory, practice and doctrine.[13] However, he meticulously recorded observational detail on practical research, and subsequently advocated not only this practice, but its publication, both for successful and unsuccessful experiments, so as to validate individual claims by replication. For sometimes we use the word nature for that Author of nature whom the schoolmen, harshly enough, call natura naturans, as when it is said that nature hath made man partly corporeal and partly immaterial. Sometimes we mean by the nature of a thing the essence, or that which the schoolmen scruple not to call the quiddity of a thing, namely, the attribute or attributes on whose score it is what it is, whether the thing be corporeal or not, as when we attempt to define the nature of an angel, or of a triangle, or of a fluid body, as such. Sometimes we take nature for an internal principle of motion, as when we say that a stone let fall in the air is by nature carried towards the centre of the earth, and, on the contrary, that fire or flame does naturally move upwards toward heaven. Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day, nature hath made respiration necessary to the life of men. Sometimes we take nature for an aggregate of powers belonging to a body, especially a living one, as when physicians say that nature is strong or weak or spent, or that in such or such diseases nature left to herself will do the cure. Sometimes we take nature for the universe, or system of the corporeal works of God, as when it is said of a phoenix, or a chimera, that there is no such thing in nature, i.e. in the world. And sometimes too, and that most commonly, we would express by nature a semi-deity or other strange kind of being, such as this discourse examines the notion of.[14] — Robert Boyle, A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature Natural philosophers of the late 17th or early 18th century were sometimes insultingly described as 'projectors'. A projector was an entrepreneur who invited people to invest in his invention but - as the caricature went - could not be trusted, usually because his device was impractical.[15] Jonathan Swift satirized natural philosophers of the Royal Society as 'the academy of projectors' in his novel Gulliver's Travels. Historians of science have argued that natural philosophers and the so-called projectors sometimes overlapped in their methods and aims.[16][17] The modern emphasis is less on a broad empiricism (one that includes passive observation of nature's activity), but on a narrow conception of the empirical concentrating on the control exercised through experimental (active) observation for the sake of control of nature. Nature is reduced to a passive recipient of human activity. Current work in the philosophy of science and nature[edit] In the middle of the 20th century, Ernst Mayr's discussions on the teleology of nature brought up issues that were dealt with previously by Aristotle (regarding final cause) and Kant (regarding reflective judgment).[18] Especially since the mid-20th-century European crisis, some thinkers argued the importance of looking at nature from a broad philosophical perspective, rather than what they considered a narrowly positivist approach relying implicitly on a hidden, unexamined philosophy.[19] One line of thought grows from the Aristotelian tradition, especially as developed by Thomas Aquinas. Another line springs from Edmund Husserl, especially as expressed in The Crisis of European Sciences. Students of his such as Jacob Klein and Hans Jonas more fully developed his themes. Last, but not least, there is the process philosophy inspired by Alfred North Whitehead's works.[20] Among living scholars, Brian David Ellis, Nancy Cartwright, David Oderberg, and John Dupré are some of the more prominent thinkers who can arguably be classed as generally adopting a more open approach to the natural world. Ellis (2002) observes the rise of a "New Essentialism."[21] David Oderberg (2007) takes issue with other philosophers, including Ellis to a degree, who claim to be essentialists. He revives and defends the Thomistic-Aristotelian tradition from modern attempts to flatten nature to the limp subject of the experimental method.[22] In his In Praise of Natural Philosophy: A Revolution for Thought and Life (2017), Nicholas Maxwell argues that we need to reform philosophy and put science and philosophy back together again to create a modern version of natural philosophy. See also[edit] Ecology portal Environment portal Environmental philosophy Gentleman scientist History of science – History of the development of science and scientific knowledge Natural environment – All living and non-living things occurring naturally, generally on Earth Natural theology Naturalism (philosophy) Nature (philosophy) Protoscience References[edit] ^ Cahan, David, ed. (2003). From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226089282. ^ The naturalist-theologian William Whewell coined the word "scientist"; his earliest written use identified by the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1834. ^ a b Moreno Muñoz, Miguel (20 September 1998). "Historia de la filosofía (C.O.U.) - Tema 1". Gobierno de Canarias (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2018. ^ Michael J. Crowe, Mechanics from Aristotle to Einstein (Santa Fe, NM: Green Lion Press, 2007), 11. ^ Martin Heidegger, The Principle of Reason, trans. Reginald Lilly, (Indiana University Press, 1991), 62-63. ^ See especially Physics, books I and II. ^ Hankinson, R. J. (1997). Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought. Oxford University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-19-924656-4. ^ a b c d e David C. Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science, University of Chicago Press, 2007, p. 50. ^ Aristotle, Physics II.7. ^ Michael J. Dodds, "Science, Causality and Divine Action: Classical Principles for Contemporary Challenges," CTNS Bulletin 21:1 [2001]. ^ Dodds 2001, p. 5. ^ a b John E. Murdoch and Edith D. Sylla Science in The Middle Ages:The Science of Motion (1978) University of Chicago Press p. 213-222 ^ More, Louis Trenchard (January 1941). "Boyle as Alchemist". Journal of the History of Ideas. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2 (1): 61–76. doi:10.2307/2707281. JSTOR 2707281. ^ Boyle, Robert; Stewart, M.A. (1991). Selected Philosophical Papers of Robert Boyle. HPC Classics Series. Hackett. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-0-87220-122-4. LCCN 91025480. ^ "The Age of the Projectors | History Today". www.historytoday.com. Retrieved 2016-10-19. ^ Willmoth, Frances (1993-01-01). Sir Jonas Moore: Practical Mathematics and Restoration Science. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9780851153216. ^ Yamamoto, Koji (2015-12-01). "Medicine, metals and empire: the survival of a chymical projector in early eighteenth-century London". The British Journal for the History of Science. 48 (4): 607–637. doi:10.1017/S000708741500059X. ISSN 0007-0874. PMID 26336059. ^ "Teleology and Randomness in the Development of Natural Science Research: Systems, Ontology and Evolution | Evolution (1.1K views)". Scribd. ^ E.A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1954), 227-230. ^ See, e.g., Michel Weber and Will Desmond, (eds.), Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, Frankfurt / Lancaster, ontos verlag, Process Thought X1 & X2, 2008. ^ See his The Philosophy of Nature: A Guide to the New Essentialism 2002. ISBN 0-7735-2474-6 ^ David S. Oderberg, Real Essentialism (Routledge, 2007). ISBN 0415323649 Further reading[edit] Adler, Mortimer J. (1993). The Four Dimensions of Philosophy: Metaphysical, Moral, Objective, Categorical. Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-500574-X. E.A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1954). Philip Kitcher, Science, Truth, and Democracy. Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. LCCN:2001036144 ISBN 0-19-514583-6 Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1945) Simon & Schuster, 1972. Santayana, George (1923). Scepticism and Animal Faith. Dover Publications. pp. 27–41. ISBN 0-486-20236-4. David Snoke, Natural Philosophy: A Survey of Physics and Western Thought. Access Research Network, 2003. ISBN 1-931796-25-4.Natural Philosophy: A Survey of Physics and Western Thought Welcome to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine Nancy R. Pearcey and Charles B. Thaxton, The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy (Crossway Books, 1994, ISBN 0891077669). Alfred N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, The Macmillan Company, 1929. René Thom, Modèles mathématiques de la morphogenèse, Christian Bourgois, 1980. Claude Paul Bruter, Topologie et perception, Maloine, 3 vols. 1974/1976/1986. Jean Largeault, Principes classiques d'interprétation de la nature, Vrin, 1988. Moritz Schlick, Philosophy of Nature, Philosophical Library, New York, 1949. Styrman, Avril: Economical Unification as a Method of Philosophical Analysis. University of Helsinki, 2016. Andrew G. Van Melsen, The Philosophy of Nature, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh 1954. Miguel Espinoza, La matière éternelle et ses harmonies éphémères, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2017. External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: Natural philosophy Wikimedia Commons has media related to Natural philosophy. "Aristotle's Natural Philosophy", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Institute for the Study of Nature "A Bigger Physics," a talk at MIT by Michael Augros Other articles v t e Age of Enlightenment Topics Atheism Capitalism Civil liberties Counter-Enlightenment Critical thinking Deism Democracy Empiricism Encyclopédistes Enlightened absolutism Free markets Haskalah Humanism Human rights Liberalism Liberté, égalité, fraternité Methodological skepticism Nationalism Natural philosophy Objectivity Rationality Rationalism Reason Reductionism Sapere aude Science Scientific method Socialism Universality Weimar Classicism Thinkers France Jean le Rond d'Alembert René Louis d'Argenson Pierre Bayle Pierre Beaumarchais Nicolas Chamfort Émilie du Châtelet Étienne Bonnot de Condillac Marquis de Condorcet René Descartes Denis Diderot Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle Claude Adrien Helvétius Baron d'Holbach Louis de Jaucourt Julien Offray de La Mettrie Georges-Louis Leclerc Gabriel Bonnot de Mably Sylvain Maréchal Jean Meslier Montesquieu Étienne-Gabriel Morelly Blaise Pascal François Quesnay Guillaume Thomas François Raynal Marquis de Sade Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Voltaire Geneva Firmin Abauzit Charles Bonnet Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui Jean-Louis de Lolme Pierre Prévost Jean-Jacques Rousseau Antoine-Jacques Roustan Horace Bénédict de Saussure Jacob Vernes Jacob Vernet Germany Justus Henning Böhmer Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Gottfried von Herder Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel Wilhelm von Humboldt Immanuel Kant Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Moses Mendelssohn Samuel von Pufendorf Friedrich Schiller Christian Thomasius Gabriel Wagner Christian Felix Weiße Christoph Martin Wieland Thomas Wizenmann Christian Wolff Greece Neophytos Doukas Theoklitos Farmakidis Rigas Feraios Theophilos Kairis Adamantios Korais Ireland George Berkeley Robert Boyle Edmund Burke John Toland Italy Cesare Beccaria Gaetano Filangieri Ferdinando Galiani Luigi Galvani Antonio Genovesi Francesco Mario Pagano Giovanni Salvemini Pietro Verri Giambattista Vico Netherlands Balthasar Bekker Pieter de la Court Petrus Cunaeus Hugo Grotius François Hemsterhuis Christiaan Huygens Adriaan Koerbagh Frederik van Leenhof Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Bernard Nieuwentyt Baruch Spinoza Jan Swammerdam Hendrik Wyermars Poland Tadeusz Czacki Hugo Kołłątaj Stanisław Konarski Ignacy Krasicki Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz Stanisław August Poniatowski Jędrzej Śniadecki Stanisław Staszic Józef Wybicki Andrzej Stanisław Załuski Józef Andrzej Załuski Portugal Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo Romania Ion Budai-Deleanu Dinicu Golescu Petru Maior Samuil Micu-Klein Gheorghe Șincai Russia Catherine II Denis Fonvizin Mikhail Kheraskov Mikhail Lomonosov Nikolay Novikov Alexander Radishchev Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova Serbia Dositej Obradović Avram Mrazović Spain José Cadalso Charles III Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro Leandro Fernández de Moratín Valentin de Foronda Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos Martín Sarmiento Diego de Torres Villarroel United Kingdom (Scotland) Joseph Addison Francis Bacon James Beattie Jeremy Bentham Joseph Black Hugh Blair James Boswell James Burnett, Lord Monboddo Anthony Collins Adam Ferguson Edward Gibbon Robert Hooke David Hume Francis Hutcheson Samuel Johnson John Locke John Millar Isaac Newton William Ogilvie Richard Price Joseph Priestley Thomas Reid Shaftesbury Adam Smith Dugald Stewart Mary Wollstonecraft United States Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson James Madison George Mason Thomas Paine Category v t e Philosophy Branches Traditional Metaphysics Epistemology Logic Ethics Aesthetics Philosophy of... Action Color Culture Design Music Film Cosmology Education Environment Geography Happiness History Human nature Humor Feminism Language Law Life Literature Mathematics Medicine Healthcare Psychiatry Mind Pain Psychology Perception Philosophy Religion Science Physics Chemistry Biology Sexuality Social science Business Culture Economics Politics Society Space and time Sport Technology Artificial intelligence Computer science Engineering Information War Schools of thought By era Ancient Western Medieval Renaissance Early modern Modern Contemporary Ancient Chinese Agriculturalism Confucianism Legalism Logicians Mohism Chinese naturalism Neotaoism Taoism Yangism Chan Greco-Roman Aristotelianism Atomism Cynicism Cyrenaics Eleatics Eretrian school Epicureanism Hermeneutics Ionian Ephesian Milesian Megarian school Neoplatonism Peripatetic Platonism Pluralism Presocratic Pyrrhonism Pythagoreanism Neopythagoreanism Sophistic Stoicism Indian Hindu Samkhya Nyaya Vaisheshika Yoga Mīmāṃsā Ājīvika Ajñana Cārvāka Jain Anekantavada Syādvāda Buddhist Śūnyatā Madhyamaka Yogacara Sautrāntika Svatantrika Persian Mazdakism Mithraism Zoroastrianism Zurvanism Medieval European Christian Augustinianism Scholasticism Thomism Scotism Occamism Renaissance humanism East Asian Korean Confucianism Edo neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism Indian Vedanta Acintya bheda abheda Advaita Bhedabheda Dvaita Nimbarka Sampradaya Shuddhadvaita Vishishtadvaita Navya-Nyāya Islamic Averroism Avicennism Illuminationism ʿIlm al-Kalām Sufi Jewish Judeo-Islamic Modern People Cartesianism Kantianism Neo-Kantianism Hegelianism Marxism Spinozism 0 Anarchism Classical Realism Liberalism Collectivism Conservatism Determinism Dualism Empiricism Existentialism Foundationalism Historicism Holism Humanism Anti- Idealism Absolute British German Objective Subjective Transcendental Individualism Kokugaku Materialism Modernism Monism Naturalism Natural law Nihilism New Confucianism Neo-scholasticism Pragmatism Phenomenology Positivism Reductionism Rationalism Social contract Socialism Transcendentalism Utilitarianism Contemporary Analytic Applied ethics Analytic feminism Analytical Marxism Communitarianism Consequentialism Critical rationalism Experimental philosophy Falsificationism Foundationalism / Coherentism Internalism and externalism Logical positivism Legal positivism Normative ethics Meta-ethics Moral realism Quinean naturalism Ordinary language philosophy Postanalytic philosophy Quietism Rawlsian Reformed epistemology Systemics Scientism Scientific realism Scientific skepticism Transactionalism Contemporary utilitarianism Vienna Circle Wittgensteinian Continental Critical theory Deconstruction Existentialism Feminist Frankfurt School New Historicism Hermeneutics Neo-Marxism Phenomenology Posthumanism Postmodernism Post-structuralism Social constructionism Structuralism Western Marxism Other Kyoto School Objectivism Postcritique Russian cosmism more... Positions Aesthetics Formalism Institutionalism Aesthetic response Ethics Consequentialism Deontology Virtue Free will Compatibilism Determinism Hard Incompatibilism Hard Libertarianism Metaphysics Atomism Dualism Idealism Monism Naturalism Realism Epistemology Empiricism Fideism Naturalism Particularism Rationalism Skepticism Solipsism Mind Behaviorism Emergentism Eliminativism Epiphenomenalism Functionalism Objectivism Subjectivism Normativity Absolutism Particularism Relativism Nihilism Skepticism Universalism Ontology Action Event Process Reality Anti-realism Conceptualism Idealism Materialism Naturalism Nominalism Physicalism Realism By region Related lists Miscellaneous By region African Ethiopian Amerindian Aztec Eastern Chinese Egyptian Indian Indonesian Iranian Japanese Korean Taiwanese Pakistani Vietnamese Middle Eastern Western American Australian British Czech Danish French German Greek Italian Polish Romanian Russian Slovene Spanish Turkish Lists Outline Index Years Problems Schools Glossary Philosophers Movements Publications Miscellaneous Natural law Sage Theoretical philosophy / Practical philosophy Women in philosophy Portal Category Book v t e Environmental humanities Art Crop art Environmental art Environmental sculpture Land art Landscape painting Photography conservation landscape nature wildlife Sculpture trail Site-specific art Sustainable art Culture Cultural ecology Cultural landscape Ecolinguistics Ecological anthropology Ecosemiotics Environmental anthropology Ethnoecology Traditional ecological knowledge Literature Ecocomposition Ecocriticism Ecopoetry Geocriticism Nature writing Outdoor literature Zoopoetics Philosophy Aesthetics of nature Constructivism Cosmology Critical realism Deep ecology Ecofeminism Ecophenomenology Ecosophy Environmental ethics Environmental justice Environmental philosophy Materialism Natural philosophy Philosophy of mind Philosophy of science Predation problem Social ecology Religion Ecotheology Environmental theology Religion and environmentalism Spiritual ecology Stewardship Other Anthrozoology Ecomusicology Environmental communication Environmental education adult arts-based Environmental history Environmental interpretation Environmental journalism Environmental law Outdoor education Psychogeography Thematic interpretation Related Animal studies Bioethics Biophilia hypothesis Do it yourself (ethic) Natural history (museums) Popular science Property theory (common property) Science, technology and society science studies Simple living Slow food Spirit of place Sustainability studies Applied Arts and Crafts movement Acoustic ecology Biomimicry Ecodesign Ecological design Ecomuseum Educational trail Environmental design Landscape architecture assessment planning Nature center New Urbanism Sustainable architecture Sustainable design Sustainable fashion Themed walk Urban acupuncture Environment portal Category Commons Journals Degrees Authority control GND: 4041408-5 LCCN: sh85101004 NDL: 00571336 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_philosophy&oldid=995533107" Categories: Natural philosophy History of philosophy History of science Hidden categories: CS1 Spanish-language sources (es) Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2018 Commons category link from Wikidata Articles containing French-language text Articles containing Hebrew-language text Articles containing Latin-language text Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Languages Afrikaans العربية Արեւմտահայերէն বাংলা Bân-lâm-gú Беларуская Български Català Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Italiano ქართული Қазақша Кыргызча Magyar მარგალური Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Shqip සිංහල Slovenčina کوردی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 21 December 2020, at 15:41 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement