natural philosophy (uncountable)

1. (historical) The objective#Adjective|objective study#Noun|study of nature in the widest sense#Noun|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 723174213 ↗:

     Those who have treated of natural philoſophy, may be nearly reduced to three claſſes.

   • 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.