自然哲学是现代自然科学的奠基，主要是思考人对于的自然界的哲学问题--包括自然界和人的相互关系、人造自然和原生自然的关系、自然界的最基本规律等。这当中不少理论，都奠下了今时今日物理学的基石。不少近代的名人，如英国科学家牛顿、德国哲学家黑格尔都曾为自然哲学编写过著作。

从发展脉络上来看，西方的现代科学是通过经历自然历史（Natural History）、自然哲学（Natural Philosophy）、自然科学（Natural Science）三个阶段发展而来。

牛顿的著作有《自然哲学的数学原理》（Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica，1687）

Naturphilosophie ("philosophy of nature" or "nature-philosophy"in German) is a term used in English-language philosophy to identify a current in the philosophical tradition of German idealism, as applied to the study of nature in the earlier 19th century. German speakers use the clearer term Romantische Naturphilosophie, the philosophy of nature developed at the time of the founding of German Romanticism. It is particularly associated with the philosophical work of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, though it has some clear precursors also. More particularly it is identified with some of the initial works of Schelling during the period 1797–9, in reaction to the views of Fichte, and subsequent developments from Schelling's position. Always controversial, some of Schelling's ideas in this direction are still considered of philosophical interest, even if the subsequent development of experimental natural science had a destructive impact on the credibility of the theories of his followers in Naturphilosophie.