Collin Gow, C.N.C.

The 18th century marked the century of specialization and the division of labor and knowledge. Prior to the 18th century, what are now the separate branches of physics, mechanics, astronomy, chemistry, psychology, and epistemology, did not exist. They were all unnamed fields inherently contained within the trunk of “natural philosophy”. Natural philosophy was the predecessor to the term “science”. The term was used to describe the systematic study of nature and the universe on the grand scale before science usurped the place of it and transposed its definition. Science developed out of philosophy. The etymology of the term science comes from Latin, French, Greek, Old English and probably other places of the world also and means – to know through study, to have the assurance of knowledge, to be certain, expertness, to divide, split, rend, cleave, distinguish, separate, and cut. Whereas the word philosophy means etymologically the love (Philos) of wisdom (Sophia), or the love of knowledge, body of knowledge, systematic investigation, and learned. Already we can see the splitting up of nature into parts, inherent in the term science and a rigid, egotistical assurance that you alone are correct, if going by “science”. There is folly in such scientific reductionism and "expertness". Studies conducted by Philip E. Tetlock revealed that non-experts/generalists make more accurate predictions about future events than experts/specialists. As for more on the term philosophy, there are many words for love in Greek. The one we are concerned with here is Philia, which may mean affectionate regard, or friendship, often between equals. The connotation here of "affection" and "equals" is quite different than the division and assumed superiority of specialized "experts", compared to non-experts, that science connotes. Philia is a dispassionate virtuous love, whereas Agape, Eros, and Storge represent other kinds of love to the Greeks. Wisdom translates literally to "wise judgment". Wis for "wise" and Dom from doom, meaning "judgment". In addition, there are at least two forms of wisdom according to Aristotle: Phronesis, practical wisdom, or, the ability to think rationally, and Sophia, transcendental wisdom or reasoning concerning universal truths. The term philosophy, therefore, suggests wisdom of the whole and concerns universal truths, rather than just specialized, reductionist thinking within one small field of life or study. For Socrates phronesis had virtue, ethics, and moral understanding attached to its practical wisdom. Perhaps the term Natural Philophrony would be even better, then, so we have morality in our "science". Remember science is more about "knowing" through study and being certain. It's a bit too assured for me. We really know nothing. We only think we know things and what we think we know keeps changing as our "science" progresses. Science as it exists today doesn't allow for enough Pyrrhonism, for my taste, in its approach and how it's conveyed and understood by the laymen. Pyrrhonism is about not making any judgments whatsoever because it believes that an equal and opposite argument can always be made in support of the opposite judgment. Of course there were many different forms of knowledge in Greek times also, namely, Episteme’, Gnosis, Doxa, and Techne. Episteme according to Plato is knowledge as “justified true belief” as opposed to doxa, common belief which has no reasoning or information to back it up and justify it, it is an uninformed opinion, basically, or an opinion without personal experience. “I know 911 was perpetrated by our own government”. That would be doxa. I don’t really know unless I was there in the buildings when it happened and saw “the government” crashing into the buildings and setting off charges bringing the world trade center down. If I were there, that would be gnosis. Episteme’ is knowing the rules of logic and how to reach true conclusions. Yet, epistemology is a more theoretical knowledge compared to gnosis which is a more experiential and personal knowledge. Modern epistemology is the study of knowledge and its limitations. Gnosis is a form of knowledge by direct perception of particular facts whereas episteme’ to Aristotle is more of a systematic study of causes. Techne represents craftsmanship or art or making something or doing something with knowledge and knowing how to do it, knowing the method to produce an object or having the skill to do it. Sounds like we have lots of techne today (technology), not much gnosis, and lots of doxa. The word "wise" means - to show the way, guide, direct, advise, to dispense knowledge, to know; having or showing good judgment. Wisdom implies the ability to think and act soundly with knowledge. Wisdom also implies ethics, self-knowledge, and compassion. So it seems that, if we just take Sophia in the word Philosophy as the regular definition of wisdom in English, then we get a number of the types of wisdom from Greece rolled into one. We get Phronesis and Sophia, ethics and wise judgement. Of course, a Pyrrhonist would make no judgement, which is perhaps even wiser, but still, it seems to me that "Natural Philosophy" is more holistic, wise, and ethical than "Science" and a more desirable term as it resembles nature more. Nature is holistic, not reductionistic. Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is connected. Everything affects everything else. Sure, there are animals with very specialized diets, but they cannot exist without the whole of nature, and man, the animal is certainly a generalist species. Definitions of the Greek forms of knowledge or wisdom seem to depend on who you ask – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle or more modern philosophers. One fact remains out of my convoluted mess of trying to understand Greek thought – they had a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of different types of knowledge and wisdom and the learned were able to see the differences. The modern western mind doesn't know of different types of knowledge or wisdom, really. So, our culture programs simplistic, scientific, reductionist connotations of these words into us. Regardless of all the differences in types of knowledge and wisdom in Greek thought, the Natural Philosopher studied nature, not just parts and specialties of nature, as we do today. Science and religion were one, spirit and matter one, under the umbrella of natural philosophy. The natural philosopher saw a unity between these now disparate fields. Naturothelogy prefers and advocates for this unified, Goethe-influenced view of nature, over the modern mechanistic, specialized, reductionist one. Or, rather, we advocate that specialized sciences can be more practical, more useful, and more accurate, if seen in the light of Natural Philosophy. Indeed, Naturotheology could be called Naturosophy. Science is a specialty separated from philosophy with a million separate branches. When all of these sciences split off from natural philosophy and became their own branches, people began specializing in only one branch and not knowing much about other branches and not knowing much about the trunk. Of course, science is not the only form of legitimate knowledge but it is often assumed as the only legitimate form of knowledge in not just western culture as a whole but especially western, allopathic medicine and western nutrition science. While science wants to and has replaced philosophy and religion in western culture, western medicine, and western nutrition, Philosophiae Doctor, or Doctor of Philosophy, is still what Ph.D. stands for and is currently used for doctorates in many fields. It seems philosophy is right under our noses, waiting to be exhumed from the dead. A Ph.D. requires more study than an M.D. (Doctor of Medicine). Perhaps we should abolish the M.D. option and require that all doctors become Ph.D.s. just to bring that philosophy word back to the forefront. But this still wouldn't be good enough as there are issues at hand with the term doctor and other issues as well with that whole system. But, I digress, and that's a subject for another essay. Nietzsche declared that "God is dead". I would argue that philosophy is dead in modern times. Nature is dying also. Let's revive these prudent words and ideas and appreciate the whole of nature in our "sciences" once more. Let's bring back the term Natural Philosophy. Naturotheology sees its wisdom and hopes the same for you.