Rethinking instrumentality : natural philosophy and Christian charity in the early modern Atlantic world

When historians and philosophers of science discuss instrumentality, they are primarily referring to an epistemological and metaphysical position that holds that science is concerned not with making truth claims but rather with predictability. Scholars correctly locate the origins of instrumental natural philosophy in the seventeenth century, when a drive toward the practical, applied study of nature transformed natural philosophy from a contemplative pursuit—so the story goes—into something more recognizably like modern science. I argue, however, that if we conceive of instrumentality primarily in this way we neglect one of its crucial elements. Seventeenth-century arguments about instrumental, practical natural philosophy were not just methodological claims; they were also normative claims about what natural philosophy should be. When explored in its historical context, this drive toward instrumentality turns out to be a Protestant project to build the kingdom of Christ on earth, to improve mankind’s condition and reform the world. The seventeenth-century British colonies in North America provided a space to construe natural philosophy as a work of Christian charity, an endeavor that was useful to mankind. This article attempts to rethink our understanding of instrumentality by historicizing this concept in the early modern Atlantic context.