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| [[Natural history]] and [[natural philosophy]] together form the principle branches of [[natural science]]. They begin in [[CL 3|Iron age cultures]] as an attempt to better understand [[nature]] by way of a [[reflection]] that no longer interprets natural phenomena in terms of the will of the [[deity|gods]]. [[Natural philosophers]], or [[naturalists]], seek to unshackle themselves from received opinion to the end of describing natural phenomena on the bases of careful observation. The authority of this observation is deemed, in the case of conflict, to trump that of [[religion]] and [[theology]]. | | #REDIRECT[[:Category:Natural History]] |
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| The description of natural phenomena afforded by natural history is not experiment-based. Natural historians may well engage in [[dissection]] and even [[vivisection]] to get a better look at the everyday operations of nature, but they have little inclination to impose highly artificial environments upon the natural phenomena which they study. To the eye of the natural historian, the rigorous control of variables achievable through [[experimentation]] casts a light that distorts more than it clarifies. In the search for knowledge, those willing to vex nature, like those willing to torture prisoners, deceive themselves by posing leading questions and accepting convenient answers. For their part, natural philosophers seek in their descriptions to do justice to nature as it presents itself to the attentive eye. And they seek to classify the variety of natural phenomena on the basis of their careful descriptions.
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| Natural history and natural philosophy are precursors of [[modern science]]. In particular, natural history is the precursor of [[biology]] and [[geology]], and natural philosophy is the precursor of [[chemistry]] and [[physics]]. Natural historians do not draw rigorous distinctions between [[life]] and its [[environment]] however. For them the study of [[animals]], or of [[plants]], or of [[minerals]] is not a matter of specialization such that the price of dedicating oneself to one field is incompetence in the others. Research within the different branches of natural history remains united by common goals and a common language. Consequently, natural history remains eminently accessible to the amateur enthusiast. It is only in [[CL 9|Renaissance]] age cultures that the corpus of natural science begins to succumb to come apart by way of an emerging experimental based science that yields results which are of great consequence within a given field and of little consequence outside it. This [[modern science]] is ruthless in its pursuit of ever greater specilisation within its respective fields.
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| The major branches of natural history include [[astronomy]], [[meteorology]], [[geography]], [[geology]], [[mineralogy]], [[botany]], [[zoology]], and [[medicine]].
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| [[Category:Philosophy]][[Category:Nature]][[Category:CL 3]]
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