José Alberto Silva,
A apropriação da filosofia natural em Teodoro de Almeida (1722-1804),
(Lisboa: Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, 2009)
127p., 7 fig.
ISBN 978-989-96231-0-1

The Oratorian priest Teodoro de Almeida (1722-1804) was an advocate and a popularizer of the Moderns – by opposition to the Aristotelian-Scholastic natural philosophy – and his masterpiece on the subject is the ten volumes Philosophical Recreation, or Dialogue about Natural Philosophy, to the instruction of curious people who could not attend classes, in which is given an account of natural phenomena and the advancements of experimental philosophy. The first volume appeared in 1751, and the last in 1800, each volume being reprinted several times. Almeida complemented Philosophical Recreation with the three volumes titled Physical-Mathematical Letters, published between 1784 and 1798.

This book analyses the popularization program of Philosophical Recreation considered as bilingualism process - in the sense of a conceptual and socio-professional mark of incommensurability between Moderns and the Aristotelian-Scholastic natural philosophy. Such a program includes the following issues: contextualization and relationship of Almeida's program with similar European projects; appropriation of Newtonian theories, taking into consideration eighteenth century eclecticism; the real audience versus virtual audience of Recreation and their sociological profile; the different agendas regarding different contexts of Philosophical Recreation; and, finally, the role of religion in the legitimation of natural knowledge and its validation process.

Contents

• Introdução, p. 9
  • Estado da arte
  • Circular e apropriar
  • Desenho da obra
• I - À luz da razão e de repetidos golpes de experiência, p. 25
  • 1 - A árvore do conhecimento
    Ordem natural do ensino e ordem natural das matérias
  • 2 - A experiência constante e o cálculo seguro
    Que importa se é herético!
    A coisa mais engenhosa
    Da vibração etérea às partículas de fogo
• II - Agendas, públicos e bilinguismo, p. 67
  • 1 - As agendas da Recreação
    A agenda religiosa
    A agenda política
  • 2 - Os públicos da Recreação
  • 3 - Bilinguismo
• III - A mão de Deus, p. 96
  • 1 - Razão e Desígnio
  • 2 - A "sã Filosofia" e a Religião
  • 3 - Argumentário
    O argumento da primeira causa
    O argumento da ordem e perfeição
    O argumento da contingência
    A aposta de Pascal ou o argumento do jogador
    O argumento do desígnio
  • 4 - Para além da Harmonia
• Conclusão, p. 120
• Bibliografia, p. 123