Špelda Daniel
Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Arna Nováka 1, Brno 602 02, Czech Republic.
Stud Hist Philos Sci. 2017 Jun;63:48-57. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2017.05.004. Epub 2017 Jun 10.
In the eighteenth century, the historiography of astronomy was part of a wider discussion concerning the history of the human spirit. The concept of the human spirit was very popular among Enlightenment authors because it gave the history of human knowledge continuity, unity and meaning. Using this concept, scientists and historians of science such as Montucla, Lalande, Bailly and Laplace could present the history of astronomy in terms of a progress towards contemporary science that was slow and could be interrupted at times, but was still constant, regular, and necessary. In my paper I intend to explain how the originally philosophical concept of the human spirit was transferred to the history of astronomy. I also introduce the basic principles to which the development of the spirit is subject in astronomy, according to historians of astronomy. The third part of the paper describes how historians of astronomy took into account the effect of social and natural factors on the history of astronomy.
在18世纪，天文学史是关于人类精神史更广泛讨论的一部分。人类精神的概念在启蒙运动时期的作者中非常流行，因为它赋予了人类知识史连续性、统一性和意义。运用这一概念，像蒙蒂克拉、拉朗德、巴伊和拉普拉斯这样的科学家和科学史家能够将天文学史呈现为朝着当代科学的进步，这种进步虽缓慢且有时会中断，但依然是持续、规律且必然的。在我的论文中，我打算解释人类精神这一原本的哲学概念是如何被应用到天文学史中的。我还将根据天文学史家的观点，介绍精神发展在天文学中所遵循的基本原则。论文的第三部分描述了天文学史家是如何考虑社会和自然因素对天文学史的影响的。
