A note on Natural Philosophy and Science

This is a quick jotting on two key terms, science and natural philosophy.

“Science” as a discrete field did not exist for centuries and for most of American history. It was often called “natural philosophy” or more simply “science” from the Latin word for knowledge, scientia. 

Johns Hopkins philosophy of science Lawrence Principe has commented,

Natural philosophy is closely related to what we familiarly call science today, but is broader in scope and intent. The natural philosopher of the Middle Ages or the Scientific Revolution studied the natural world—as modern scientists do—but did so within a wider vision that included theology and metaphysics. The three components of God, man, and nature were never insulated from one another. Lawrence Principe, The Scientific Revolution

The change in nomenclature signaled a shift in scope. Not until 1834 did the Cambridge University historian and philosopher of science William Whewell coin the term “scientist” to replace such terms as “cultivators of science.”