natural philosophy

English

Noun

natural philosophy (uncountable)

1. (historical) The objective study of nature in the widest sense; science; (later especially) physics. [from 14th c.]
   • 1729, Roger Cotes, “The Preface of Mr. Roger Cotes, to the Second Edition of this Work, so far as It Relates to the Inventions and Discoveries herein Contained”, in Isaac Newton, translated by Andrew Motte, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. […] , volume I, London: […] Benjamin Motte, […], →OCLC:

     Those who have treated of natural philoſophy, may be nearly reduced to three claſſes.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 772:

     The discipline which is the ancestor of modern specializations like astronomy, biology, physics and chemistry was then called natural philosophy.

Translations

objective study of nature

• Latin: philosophia naturalis f