Treatise on natural philosophy

What Hacker News says

1. billfruitFeb 2019
   The article strangely seems focused on works written in French, but I think English perhaps have an even richer popular science or 'Natural History' literature from the 19th century. I have heard good things about "Treatise on Natural Philosophy" by William Thompson(Lord Kelvin) and Peter Guthrie Tait.

   Another one, Charles Lyell "Principles of Geology".

   Gilbert White "Natural History of Selborne" and Izzak Walton "The Compleat Angler" also.

   Show morethread
2. s-shellfishAug 2018
   How is natural philosophy different from moral philosophy?

   I'm sure that comes across as a dumb question, but, modernity - technology.

   The irony of mathematics being naturally built in, reinforced into all of us, over and over. Computer science.

   From wikipedia:

   > From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th century, the term "natural philosophy" was the common term used to describe the practice of studying nature. It was in the 19th century that the concept of "science" received its modern shape with new titles emerging such as "biology" and "biologist", "physics" and "physicist" among other technical fields and titles; institutions and communities were founded, and unprecedented applications to and interactions with other aspects of society and culture occurred.[1] Isaac Newton's book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), whose title translates to "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", reflects the then-current use of the words "natural philosophy", akin to "systematic study of nature". Even in the 19th century, a treatise by Lord Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait, which helped define much of modern physics, was titled Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867).

   > "systematic study of nature"

   And what do we do? What is nature to study? What is life to study?

   Our own puzzled face, staring back at us.

   Show morethread