Definition of "natural philosophy" [natural philosophy]

• The study of nature and the physical universe before the advent of modern science. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In Jandun, the status of natural philosophy is also raised, as in Buridan, to that of an independent, objec - tive description of nature."
• "It is, in fact, only in the section on natural philosophy in the Book of Heal - ing that the study of all the three kingdoms, carried out so brilliantly in the case of animals and plants by"
• "When we compare the probable philosophical theses of Siger and Buridan, the major difference we discover is the growth in Buridan of a natural philosophy inde - pendent of Aristotle."