Natural Philosophy and the Humanities
摘要
Humans have been observing the physical world and trying to make sense of it for many millennia. Eventually this activity was organized into a coherent practice known as Natural Philosophy. Humans have also observed one another and tried to understand human culture. One definition of The Humanities is the study of human creativity. A persistent notion in academic circles is that Natural Philosophy and The Humanities are from two different cultures and that there can be no useful dialogue between them. The goal of this chapter is to examine the nature of Natural Philosophy and The Humanities and to demonstrate by examples and discussion that both areas of human scholarly activity would benefit from considering the insights of the other approach. A selection of academic sub-disciplines from The Humanities will be discussed in detail, and areas of complementarity with Natural Philosophy will be explored. The author has made a career of both Natural Philosophy and The Humanities and will present a series of biographies of other historical figures that followed this path.