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     The Natural Philosopher

           Some musings on the nature of our completely natural world by a philosopher - naturally.

The "Natural Philosopher"

The “Natural Philosopher”? What does he mean by that?

Long before the term 'scientist' was coined (in the 1830s), those that studied the physical or natural sciences were called natural philosophers.  These were the men (yes, they were almost always men) that devoted themselves not to the study of the metaphysical and moral sciences (these were the moral philosophers), but to the study of natural bodies and the phenomena connected with them.  From the early fourteenth century up until the middle of the nineteenth century this title was given to the students of “physics” (which included modern physics, chemistry and biology) who were found not only or even most often among traditional philosophers, but also among physicians, theologians and amateur naturalists.  It was only with the creation of the term ‘scientist’ that the label of ‘natural philosopher’ fell out of regular usage and the term ‘philosopher’ came to have its modern connotation not of a “lover of wisdom” in general (and so encompassing those that search for the truths concerning the physical), but, more specifically, those that study metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and logic.

But, of course, there is something else that one could mean when calling someone a “natural philosopher”.  Instead of using the phrase as an old-fashioned way of calling someone a scientist, one could mean that they have a natural ability as a philosopher – that he or she is, by nature, a philosopher.

And, what do I mean by calling myself a natural philosopher?  Do I mean to call myself a scientist or a natural at doing philosophy?  I mean to call myself both.

My formal education and training is as a philosopher, not as a scientist, but my preferred method of studying and understanding the world is scientific and my worldview is entirely naturalistic.  I believe that the whole world is comprised of only physical objects and that all phenomena are the result of the physical relations and interactions between those physical objects.  So even when studying the human mind and the social, political and moral elements of the human world, one is studying not just entirely natural phenomena, but entirely physical phenomena. So I am a philosopher, but, more specifically, I am a natural philosopher.

As for the other connotation – I don’t consider myself a natural in the sense of have a talent or ability that comes easily and without effort, rather, I think that there is a sense in which all humans are, by their very nature, philosophers.  From birth humans are curious and inquisitive.  We take in the experiences of our senses and immediately look for patterns and attempt to categorize the elements of those experiences.  We seek to understand – to know.  We all theorize about the world; seeking causes and meanings.  And we all interpret our experiences of the world in terms of our theories and we all test out theories about the world against our experiences.  We ask questions about what is present and we speculate about what might be.  We develop our beliefs about how things are and how things should be into worldview and a code of conduct – a personal philosophy. We each, whether we realize it or not, have our own philosophy – be it one that we have built piecemeal out of the unique experiences of our own lives or one that we have accepted whole cloth from teachings or tradition.  We humans by our very natures philosophize and have philosophies – we are natural philosophers.  And so I, being human, am, like everyone else, a natural philosopher.  The only difference is that in my case I have studied methods and theories of the philosophers of the past in order to try to develop a better, more rational philosophy.

So, here I am an innate, but intentional philosopher and a scientific philosopher as well; to wit – a natural philosopher.

 -- Sunday, August 21, 2005

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What is a website without a blog?  Well, these days it's unusual.  So I've decided to set up a forum in which to post ideas arising from my readings and research in philosophy and the sciences.  And, who knows, maybe someone will even read it.