Entre aristotelismo e lição experimental no magistério jesuítico: discurso científico no advento da ciência moderna (séculos XVI e XVII)

Abstract

Jesuit education codified in the Ratio Studiorum reflects an epistemological framework that had already a tradition of some twenty centuries of acceptance. However, it takes an innovative route in that it rejects the traditional opposition between scholastic and humanistic teaching. The Ratio Studiorum treats them as complementary paths (not rivals) and favors a healthy dialogue between tradition and innovation. In fact, Jesuit Aristotelianism does not reject the lesson from experience, as we can see in some philosophy textbooks, written in Latin and often forgotten, namely Francisco Soares Lusitano’s manual, which was used as textbook study in Brazil. A reading and an examination of the Ratio Studiorum (1599), coupled with an examination of natural philosophy textbooks produced by Jesuits, allow us to define the place allotted to the knowledge of nature in Jesuit education and to reassess the role of Jesuit “philosophical science” in the advent of modern science.