English

Noun

natural philosophy ‎(uncountable)

1. (historical) The objective study of nature in the widest sense; science, (later especially) physics. [from 14th c.]
   • 1687, Isaac Newton, (title):

     The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 772:

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