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Who was the first scientist?
It wasn't Isaac Newton. Today, it is generally acknowledged that Newton
never thought of himself as a scientist. He couldn't, for the word didn't exist in
was not only a scientist, but the greatest scientist who ever lived, yet (Newton
his time.
Newton thought of himself as a "philosopher," a word that (a)dates back to
the ancient Greek thinkers and that comes from Greek words (b)meaning "lover
of wisdom."
There are different kinds of wisdom we might love, of course. Some
philosophers are concerned chiefly with the wisdom derived from the study of
the world about us and the manner of its workings. The world { c ℗ about
2 be 3 can
4 referred 5 to 6 us as "nature," from the Latin
word meaning “birth." Nature, in other words, is everything that has been
created or that has come into being. Philosophers who deal primarily with
nature are, therefore, "natural philosophers."
Newton thought of himself as a natural philosopher, and the sort of thing
he studied was natural philosophy. Thus, when he wrote the book (d) he
carefully described his three laws of motion and his theory of universal
gravitation—the greatest scientific book ever written-he called it (in Latin)
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which in English is The
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.
The Greek word for "natural" is physikos, which in English becomes
physical. Natural philosophy might also be spoken of as "physical philosophy,
which can be shortened to “physics.”
on. Physics
As natural philosophy grew and expanded, all kinds of special studies
developed. People began to speak of chemistry, of geology, of physiology, and so
was whatever was left over, so it didn't suit as a general overall
word for natural philosophy. Yet you needed some such short word, for natural
philosophy was a seven-syllable mouthful.
