NATURAL SCIENCE

AND
NATURALISM
 Natural science
• is a branch of science concerned with the
description, prediction, and understanding
of natural phenomena, based on empirical
evidence from observation and experimentati
on. Mechanisms such as peer review and
repeatability of findings are used to try to
ensure the validity of scientific advances.
• Natural science can be divided into two main
branches: life science (or biological science)
and physical science.
 Natural science
• Physical science is subdivided into branches,
including physics, chemistry, astronomy and Earth
science.
• These branches of natural science may be further
divided into more specialized branches (also known as
fields).
• As empirical sciences, natural sciences use tools from
the formal sciences, such as mathematics and logic,
converting information about nature into measurements
which can be explained as clear statements of the "laws
of nature".
 Natural science
• Modern natural science succeeded more
classical approaches to natural philosophy,
usually traced to ancient Greece.
• Galileo, Descartes, Bacon,
and Newton debated the benefits of using
approaches which were
more mathematical and more experimental in
a methodical way.
 NATURALISM
• is an approach to philosophical problems that
interprets them as tractable through the
methods of the empirical sciences or at least,
without a distinctively a priori (knowledge is
independent on sense experience) project of
theorizing.
• metaphysics and epistemology have often jointly
occupied a position of "first philosophy," laying
the necessary grounds for the understanding of
reality and the justification of knowledge claims.
 NATURALISM
• Naturalism rejects philosophy's claim to that
special status.
• Whether in epistemology, ethics, philosophy
of mind, philosophy of language, or other
areas, naturalism seeks to show that
philosophical problems as traditionally
conceived are ill-formulated and can be solved
or displaced by appropriately naturalistic
methods.
 NATURALISM
• Naturalism often assigns a key role to the methods
and results of the empirical sciences, and
sometimes aspires to reductionism (a practice of
analyzing and describing complex phenomenon in
terms of phenomena that are held to represent a
simpler/more fundamental level) and physicalism.
• However, there are many versions of naturalism
and some are explicitly non-scientistic. What they
share is a repudiation of the view of philosophy as
exclusively a priori theorizing concerned with a
distinctively philosophical set of questions.
 NATURALIST
PHILOSOPHERS
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749—1832)
• Goethe defies most labels, and in
the case of the label ‘philosopher’
he did so intentionally. “The
scholastic philosophy,” in his
opinion, “had, by the frequent
darkness and apparent uselessness
of its subject- matter, by its
unseasonable application of a
method in itself respectable, and
by its too great extension over so
many subjects, made itself foreign
to the mass, unpalatable, and at
last superfluous”.
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749—1832)
• Goethe is certainly not a philosopher in the
sense made popular in his day: a builder of
self-grounding systems of thought. Neither is
he a philosopher by today’s most common
definitions: either a professional analyzer of
arguments or a critic of contemporary cultural
practices.
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749—1832)
• In terms of influence, Goethe’s upon Germany is second only
to Martin Luther’s. The periods of his dramatic and poetic
writing –Sturm und Drang, romanticism, and classicism—
simply are the history of the high-culture in Germany from
the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century.
• Philosophically, his influence is indelible(cannot be removed),
though not as wide-reaching.
• His formulation of an organic ontology(philosophical study of
being) left its mark on thinkers from Hegel to Wittgenstein;
his theory of colors challenged the reigning paradigm of
Newton’s optics; and his theory of morphology(study of the
forms of things), that of Linnaeus’ biology.
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier
(French: 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)
• He is known as Georges Cuvier, was a
French naturalist and zoologist,
sometimes referred to as the
"founding father of paleontology".
• Cuvier was a major figure in natural
sciences research in the early 19th
century and was instrumental in
establishing the fields of comparative
anatomy and paleontology through
his work in comparing living animals
with fossils.
 Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier
(French: 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)
• Cuvier's work is considered the foundation of
vertebrate paleontology, and he expanded
Linnaean taxonomy (used to organize the different
kinds of living organisms, simply and practically) by
grouping classes into phyla (plural form of phylum
which means, a set of characters shared by its living
representatives)and incorporating both fossils and
living species into the classification.
• Cuvier is also known for establishing extinction as a
fact—at the time, extinction was considered by many
of Cuvier's contemporaries to be merely controversial
speculation.
 Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier
(French: 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)
• In his Essay on the Theory of the Earth (1813) Cuvier
proposed that now-extinct species had been wiped out
by periodic catastrophic flooding events.
• In this way, Cuvier became the most influential
proponent of catastrophism in geology (study of earth’s
physical structure and substance) in the early 19th
century.
• His study of the strata (a form of ownership of multi
level blocks of subdivision)of the Paris basin with
Alexandre Brongniart established the basic principles
of biostratigraphy ( concerned with fossils and their use
in dating rock formations).
 Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier
(French: 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)
• Among his other accomplishments, Cuvier
established that elephant-like bones found in the
USA belonged to an extinct animal he later would
name as a mastodon, and that a large skeleton dug
up in Paraguay was of Megatherium, a giant,
prehistoric ground sloth.
• He named the pterosaur Pterodactylus, described
(but did not discover or name) the aquatic reptile
Mosasaurus, and was one of the first people to
suggest the earth had been dominated by reptiles,
rather than mammals, in prehistoric times.
 Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier
(French: 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)
• Cuvier is also remembered for strongly opposing
theories of evolution, which at the time (before
Darwin's theory) were mainly proposed by Jean-
Baptiste de Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
• Cuvier believed there was no evidence for
evolution, but rather evidence for cyclical
creations and destructions of life forms by global
extinction events such as deluges(great flood).
 Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier
(French: 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832)
• His most famous work is Le Règne Animal (1817;
English: The Animal Kingdom).
• In 1819, he was created a peer for life in honor of his
scientific contributions. Thereafter, he was known as
Baron Cuvier.
• He died in Paris during an epidemic of cholera.
• Some of Cuvier's most influential followers were
Louis Agassiz on the continent and in the United
States, and Richard Owen in Britain. His name is one
of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
 Charles Robert Darwin
(February 1809 – 19 April 1882)
• was an English naturalist, geologist and
biologist, best known for his contributions
to the science of evolution.
• His proposition that all species of life have
descended over time from
common ancestors is now widely
accepted, and considered a foundational
concept in science.
• In a joint publication with Alfred Russel
Wallace, he introduced his scientific
theory that this branching pattern of
evolution resulted from a process that he
called natural selection.
 Charles Robert Darwin
(February 1809 – 19 April 1882)
• Darwin has been described as one of the most influential
figures in human history, and he was honoured by
burial in Westminster Abbey.
• Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling
evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.
• By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the
educated public had accepted evolution as a fact.
• However, many favoured competing explanations which gave
only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the
emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the
1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which
natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.
 Charles Robert Darwin
(February 1809 – 19 April 1882)
• Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the
life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.
• Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his
medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead,
he helped to investigate marine invertebrates.
• Studies at the University of Cambridge (Christ's College)
encouraged his passion for natural science.
• His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an
eminent geologist whose observations and theories
supported Charles Lyell's
conception of gradual geological change, and publication of
his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular
author.
 Charles Robert Darwin
(February 1809 – 19 April 1882)
• Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and
fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed
investigations, and in 1838 conceived his theory of natural
selection.
• In 1871 he examined human evolution and sexual selection
in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex,
followed by
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
• His research on plants was published in a series of books,
and in his final book,
The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of
Worms
(1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil
 Karl Marx
(5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883)
• Born in Trier, Germany, Marx studied
law and philosophy at university. He
married Jenny von Westphalen in
1843.
• Due to his political publications, Marx
became stateless and lived in exile
with his wife and children in London
for decades, where he continued to
develop his thought in collaboration
with German thinker Friedrich Engels
and publish his writings, researching
in the
reading room of the British Museum.
 Karl Marx
(5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883)
• His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet,
The Communist Manifesto, and the three-
volume Das Kapital.
• His political and philosophical thought had
enormous influence on subsequent
intellectual, economic and political history,
and his name has been used as an adjective, a
noun and a school of social theory.
 Karl Marx
(5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883)
• Marx's critical theories about society, economics
and politics – collectively understood as Marxism –
hold that human societies develop through
class struggle.
• In capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict
between the ruling classes (known as the
bourgeoisie) that control the means of production
and the working classes (known as the proletariat)
that enable these means by selling their labour
power in return for wages.
 Karl Marx
(5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883)
• Employing a critical approach known as
historical materialism, Marx predicted that, like
previous socio-economic systems, capitalism
produced internal tensions which would lead to
its self-destruction and replacement by a new
system known as socialism(economic/political
system based on public or collective ownership
of the means of production, which emphasizes
equality rather than achievement).
 Karl Marx
(5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883)
• Marx has been described as one of the most
influential figures in human history, and his work has
been both lauded and criticised.
• His work in economics laid the basis for much of the
current understanding of labour and its relation to
capital, and subsequent economic thought.
• Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists and political
parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx's
work, with many modifying or adapting his ideas.
• Marx is typically cited as one of the principal
architects of modern social science
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
(16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919)
• was a German zoologist, naturalist,
philosopher, physician, professor,
marine biologist, and artist who
discovered, described and named
thousands of new species, mapped
a genealogical tree relating all life
forms, and coined many terms in
biology,including ecology, phylum,
phylogeny(history of evolution), and
Protista(classification of living
organism).
 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
(16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919)
• Haeckel promoted and popularised
Charles Darwin's work in Germany and
developed the influential but no longer widely
held recapitulation theory ("ontogeny
recapitulates phylogeny") claiming that an
individual organism's biological development,
or ontogeny, parallels and summarises its
species' evolutionary development, or
phylogeny.
 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
(16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919)
• The published artwork of Haeckel includes over
100 detailed, multi-colour
illustrations of animals and sea creatures,
collected in his Kunstformen der Natur ("Art
Forms of Nature").
• As a philosopher, Ernst Haeckel wrote Die
Welträthsel (1895–1899; in English: The Riddle of
the Universe, 1901), the genesis for the term "
world riddle" (Welträtsel); and Freedom in
Science and Teaching to support teaching
evolution.
 KONSTANTIN EDUARDOVICH TSIOLKOVSKY
(17 SEPTEMBER 1857 – 19 SEPTEMBER 1935)
• was a Russian and Soviet
rocket scientist and pioneer of
the astronautic theory.
• Along with the French Robert
Esnault-Pelterie, the German
Hermann Oberth and the
American Robert H. Goddard,
he is considered to be one of
the founding fathers of
modern rocketry and
astronautics.
 KONSTANTIN EDUARDOVICH TSIOLKOVSKY
(17 SEPTEMBER 1857 – 19 SEPTEMBER 1935)
• His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket
engineers such as Sergei Korolev and Valentin
Glushko and contributed to the success of the
Soviet space program.
• Tsiolkovsky spent most of his life in a log house
on the outskirts of Kaluga, about 200 km
(120 mi) southwest of Moscow. A recluse (living
in voluntary seclusion from the public or
society) by nature, his unusual habits made him
seem bizarre to his fellow townsfolk.
 His legacy:
• Although many called his ideas
impractical, Tsiolkovsky influenced later rocket
scientists throughout Europe, like Wernher
von Braun. Russian search teams at
Peenemünde found a German translation of a
book by Tsiolkovsky of which "almost every
page...was embellished by von Braun's
comments and notes."
 His legacy:
• Leading Soviet rocket-engine designer Valentin
Glushko and rocket designer Sergey Korolev studied
Tsiolkovsky's works as youths, and both sought to turn
Tsiolkovsky's theories into reality.
• In particular, Korolev saw traveling to Mars as the
more important priority, until in 1964 he decided to
compete with the American Project Apollo for the
Moon.
• In 1989, Tsiolkovsky was inducted(admitting someone
formally to a position or organization) into the
International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the
San Diego Air & Space Museum