According to the standard view, Borelli was a strict mechanist who sought to explain organic processes by resorting to invisible mechanisms. This paper aims to show that his outlook on living organisms as contained in De motu animalium was far more nuanced than historians have maintained. Borelli resorted to vis motiva as the source of activity of corpuscles, a notion that was at odds with strict mechanism. He identified motive force with spirits, namely with self-moving particles of matter. Borelli combined anatomy and mechanism and integrated the latter with chemical experiments and analogies. Like most late–seventeenth century physiologists, Borelli resorted to fermentation to account for several physiological processes such as digestion, generation, and muscular motion. He distinguished two kinds of fermentative processes: a slow one, as in the case of digestion, and a quick one, as in the case of the presumed effervescence of the blood which he maintained was the cause of muscular movement.

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机制、动机和发酵：对博雷利生理学的重新评估


根据标准观点，博雷利是一位严格的机械论者，他试图通过诉诸无形的机制来解释有机过程。本文旨在表明他对生物体的看法动物性远比历史学家所认为的更加微妙。博雷利采取了动力作为血球活动的来源，这一概念与严格的机制相矛盾。他将动力等同于精神，即物质的自动粒子。博雷利将解剖学和机制结合起来，并将后者与化学实验和类比相结合。与大多数 17 世纪末的生理学家一样，博雷利利用发酵来解释消化、生成和肌肉运动等多种生理过程。他区分了两种发酵过程：一种是缓慢的，如消化的情况；一种是快速的，如他认为血液沸腾是肌肉运动的原因。