Orozco-Echeverri Sergio H, Molina-Betancur Sebastián
Science Studies Unit, The University of Edinburgh, UK.
Instituto de Filosofía, Universidad de Antioquia UdeA, Colombia.
Hist Sci. 2019 Sep;57(3):291-323. doi: 10.1177/0073275319827203. Epub 2019 Mar 13.
This paper characterizes José Celestino Mutis' (1732-1808) appropriation of Newton in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. First, we examine critically traditional accounts of Mutis' works highlighting, on the one hand, their inadequacy for directing their claims toward the nineteenth-century independence from Spain and, on the other, for not differentiating between Newtonianism and Enlightenment. Next, we portray Mutis' complex Newtonianism from his own statements and from printed sources, including a variety of works and translations from British, Dutch, and French authors, in addition to a wide range of Newton's writings, unusual for an eighteenth-century reader in the Americas. Finally, we analyze a salient claim of Mutis' Newtonianism in order to depict his appropriation and transformation of Newton's ideas: the characterization of Newtonian experimental physics as a useful science. In so doing, Mutis further developed metaphysical and methodological positions not present in Newton's works.
本文描述了何塞·塞莱斯蒂诺·穆蒂斯（1732 - 1808）在新格拉纳达总督辖区对牛顿学说的运用。首先，我们批判性地审视了关于穆蒂斯作品的传统叙述，一方面强调其在指向19世纪从西班牙独立方面的不足，另一方面强调其未区分牛顿主义与启蒙运动。接下来，我们从穆蒂斯自己的陈述以及印刷资料中描绘他复杂的牛顿主义，这些资料包括各种作品以及来自英国、荷兰和法国作者的翻译作品，此外还有牛顿的大量著作，这对于一位18世纪美洲的读者来说是不同寻常的。最后，我们分析穆蒂斯牛顿主义的一个突出观点，以描述他对牛顿思想的运用和转变：将牛顿的实验物理学描述为一门有用的科学。通过这样做，穆蒂斯进一步发展了牛顿作品中未出现的形而上学和方法论立场。
