José Victorino Lastarria : scientific, literary and social astronomy

Abstract

We analyse an interdisciplinary article by the Chilean José Victorino Lastarria entitled Celestial and Social Astronomy, which was published in1867. In general, we examine how different fields of knowledge coexisted in the work of this intellectual, including: astronomy, politics, philosophy and literature. Our analysis considers the hybrid nature of the text, as a literary work, a text that aimed at popularizing scientific findings, while, at the same time, it contains political and social criticism. We focus, specifically, on the treatment of astronomy and its close link with a description of a society. Both the general and specific perspectives lead towards an interpretation of how astronomic science was thought, written and disseminated in Chile in the mid-19th century.