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.

中文翻译：

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何塞·塞莱斯蒂诺·穆蒂斯 (José Celestino Mutis) 在新格拉纳达 (1761–1808) 对牛顿实验物理学的挪用

本文描述了何塞·塞莱斯蒂诺·穆蒂斯 (José Celestino Mutis)（1732-1808 年）对牛顿在新格拉纳达总督府的占有。首先，我们考察了对穆蒂斯作品的批判性传统描述，一方面强调了他们在将自己的主张指向 19 世纪从西班牙独立的方向上的不足，另一方面，没有区分牛顿主义和启蒙运动。接下来，我们从穆蒂斯自己的陈述和印刷资料中描绘了他复杂的牛顿主义，包括英国、荷兰和法国作家的各种作品和翻译，以及牛顿的广泛著作，这对于 18 世纪的读者来说是不寻常的在美洲。最后，我们分析了穆蒂斯的牛顿主义的一个突出主张，以描述他对牛顿思想的挪用和转化：将牛顿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没有的形而上学和方法论立场。