The newtonianisms in France and in Portugal in the 18th century: a reassessment from the perspective of books II and III of the opticks

Abstract

This project will study the role and relevance of books II and III of Newtons Opticks to the construction of Newtonianism in French and Portuguese natural philosophy in the 18th century. These books contains studies on the colors of natural bodies, Newtons rings, double refraction, ether etc. In the last decades, historians have been concerned on other parts of Newtonianism in Europe in the 18th century, broadening the knowledge on the influence of Newtons ideas in scientific, cultural and social contexts. The project is a continuation of a wider research that has been developed for over a decade, on the importance of less known parts of Newtonian optics in the popularization of Newtonianism. In previous studies, focused on Britain, we showed that British natural philosophers emphasized parts of the Opticks that legitimated the inductive method and the corpuscular conception of light. Other contents were ignored. We intend to continue these studies, analyzing French and Portuguese contexts. In modern historiography, few studies approach the reception of other parts of the Opticks. The project will be developed in SPHere (France), with the supervision of Olivier Darrigol and collaboration of Joao Paulo Principe (Universidade de Evora). (AU)