16 - Natural philosophy in earlier latin thought

Summary

WAS THERE A PHYSICS BEFORE THE PHYSICS?

Was there anything like physics before the reception of the Aristotelian libri naturales? This question raises the problem of what kinds of discussions can be classified as “physical.” Modern scholars have commonly held that the beginnings of a scientific interest in natural phenomena among medieval authors appear only in the early twelfth century. The main characteristic of this development is said to be a shift of interest and consequently of method: whereas medieval scholars had previously interpreted nature symbolically, in correspondence with the practices of biblical exegesis, they henceforth focused on the inherent structure of physical reality, which they intended to understand and explain as such, which is to say secundum naturam or physicam.

While this approach to earlier medieval science has the advantage of having drawn scholarly interest toward the twelfth century, its weakness consists in its general neglect and global condemnation of the earlier stages of Latin thought. For it suggests that an interest in natural phenomena as such can hardly be discovered prior to the twelfth century, which would imply the (more or less complete) absence of natural philosophy during this time. However, if one takes the trouble to investigate the available sources, the actual situation turns out to be much more complicated and interesting. First, the sources on which early medieval authors draw already attest to the presence of a notion of physica. Macrobius’s Saturnalia, for instance, expressly mentions natural philosophy (physica), which for him “deals with the divine bodies either of the heaven or of the stars.” Certainly, he allows that it has further sub-parts. These parts, however, particularly medicine, are disqualified as “dregs” (faex) since they consider “earthly and worldly bodies.”