A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth CenturyNatural philosophy encompassed all natural phenomena of the physical world. It sought to discover the physical causes of all natural effects and was little concerned with mathematics. By contrast, the exact mathematical sciences were narrowly confined to various computations that did not involve physical causes, functioning totally independently of natural philosophy. Although this began slowly to change in the late Middle Ages, a much more thoroughgoing union of natural philosophy and mathematics occurred in the seventeenth century and thereby made the Scientific Revolution possible. The title of Isaac Newton's great work, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, perfectly reflects the new relationship. Natural philosophy became the 'Great Mother of the Sciences', which by the nineteenth century had nourished the manifold chemical, physical, and biological sciences to maturity, thus enabling them to leave the 'Great Mother' and emerge as the multiplicity of independent sciences we know today. |
Contents
2 Aristotle 384322 bc | 27 |
3 Late Antiquity | 52 |
4 Islam and the Eastward Shift of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy | 61 |
5 Natural Philosophy before the Latin Translations | 95 |
6 Translations in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries | 130 |
Its Role and Place in the Late Middle Ages | 143 |
8 The Form and Content of Late Medieval Natural Philosophy | 179 |
9 The Relations between Natural Philosophy and Theology | 239 |
10 The Transformation of Medieval Natural Philosophy from the Early Modern Period to the End of the Nineteenth Century | 274 |
Conclusion | 323 |
| 331 | |
| 347 | |
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Adelard Adelard of Bath Albert of Saxony Arabic argued arguments Aristotelian Aristotelian natural Aristotle Aristotle’s natural philosophy Aristotle’s Physics Aristotle’s text Aristotle’s treatises arts assumed astronomy Averroes Bacon Book in Medieval caelo cause celestial bodies chapter Christian cited Clagett commentaries on Aristotle’s declares Dictionary of Scientific discussion earth existence experience explains faith G. E. R. Lloyd God’s Greek Science heaven History of Science ibid Ibn Rushd included Isaac Newton Islamic John Buridan Kilwardby knowledge late Middle Ages Latin logic losophy mathematics medicine medieval natural philosophers Medieval Science medieval universities metaphysics Meteorology mobile motion moved natural phi natural science Neoplatonic Newton Nicole Oresme Philoponus philoso physical world Plato pre-Socratic problems questions ratios reason regarded religion role scholars scholastic natural philosophers Scientific Biography seventeenth century Simplicius Source Book Themon theologians theology things tion titled translation twelfth century vacuum William William of Conches wrote