Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Imperium, Metaphysical Instrumentalism, and Potosí Mining
1. Grounding the Empire: Francisco de Vitoria’s Political Physics
2. The Impasses of Instrumentalism: Revisiting the Polemics between Sepúlveda and Las Casas
3. Mastering Nature: José de Acosta’s Pragmatic Instrumentalism
4. From Imperial Reason to Instrumental Reason: The Ideology of the Circle of Toledo
5. The Exhaustion of Natural Subordination: Solórzano Pereira and the Demise of Metaphysical Instrumentalism
Notes
Bibliography
Index