natural philosophy

English

(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; Andrew Motte, transl., The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. [...] Translated into English […] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for 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.

objective study of nature

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