ABSTRACT
Science began in Antiquity as a branch of wisdom, and philosophy ( = the love of wisdom) was distinguished from wisdom only by philosophers. Cultivators of science in its early modern times (c. 1600-1800) called themselves philosophers, and their activity was called not science but natural philosophy. What we call today the philosophy of science includes the theories of knowledge (epistemology) and of learning (methodology), as well as the study of the principles of science (metaphysics, the philosophy of nature). The first two disciplines were at the time neglected as they were considered marginal; the third, metaphysics, was deemed distinctly dangerous. Natural philosophers did not consider their work impractical; they called themselves ‘benefactors of humanity’, as they were convinced that their activities, in addition to their intrinsic merits, will bring peace and prosperity to the whole world. But they insisted that the practical aspects of science, significant as they surely are, can only appear as by-products, not as the outcome of study directed to any goal other than the search for the truth: any other goal will render research biased and so worse than nothing.
