中世纪光学思想史的渐进论编史纲领

Evolutionary Historiographical Program of Medieval Optics

同天文学和重量科学的思想史研究一样,关于中世纪光学的编史思路也存在渐进论和革命论之争。渐进论者从古代光学中数学方法的应用角度出发,强调近代光学同中世纪光学之间的连续性。代表人物林德伯格更是将近代早期光学的诞生归因于对中世纪光学数学分析传统的严格继承。以此为基础,他进一步将近代数学物理学的诞生归结为对西方科学传统中"数学应用于自然"主张的坚持与深化。然而在渐进论者以数理科学的演进为纲领将史料编织出明晰线索的同时,却忽略了中世纪光学的自然哲学、认识论及神学背景,从而使得这一原本具有丰富内容的学科变得干瘪和扭曲。

As in astronomy and the science of weight, in the medieval optics there was the argumentation between the evolutionist and revolutionist. By examining the application of mathematical method in ancient and medieval optics, the evolutionists emphasized the consistency between the medieval optics and the early modem optics. David Lindberg, a famous evolutionist, even attributed the birth of modem optics to the rigorous inheritance of mathematical analysis in the medieval tradition. Based on this, he concluded that the emergence of modem mathematical physics had benefited from the insisting on and deepening of ＂the applicability of mathematics to nature＂ in the Western scientific tradition. While the evolutionists could offer clear line along which to organize historical materials by the program of the application of mathematics to nature, they overlooked the epistemological and theological context of medieval optics and its background in natural philosophy, emaciating and even distorting the content of the otherwise rich discipline.