As Bertrand Russell pointed out over a century ago, philosophy is the first academic discipline, the first show from which all the others are spin-offs. Pythagoras is most famous now for his eponymous theorem, but he called himself a philosopher, not a mathematician. Mathematics hadn’t yet splintered away to become its own field; all scholarship was one.
In the Renaissance and early modern period the natural sciences, formerly known as “natural philosophy,” became their own distinctive subject. In 1776 Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, thus becoming the father of economics. At the time Smith was the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, and was best known for The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).
In the Renaissance and early modern period the natural sciences, formerly known as “natural philosophy,” became their own distinctive subject. In 1776 Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, thus becoming the father of economics. At the time Smith was the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, and was best known for The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).
