The romantic conception of life : science and philosophy in the age of Goethe / Robert J. Richards.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Richards, Robert J. (Robert John), 1942-

Series:

Science and its conceptual foundations.

Science and its conceptual foundations

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Romanticism--Germany.

Romanticism.

German literature--18th century--History and criticism.

German literature.

German literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Literature and science--Germany.

Literature and science.

Philosophy, German.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 587 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"All art should become science and all science art; poetry and philosophy should be made one." Friedrich Schlegel's words perfectly capture the project of the German Romantics, who believed that the aesthetic approaches of art and literature could reveal patterns and meaning in nature that couldn't be uncovered through rationalistic philosophy and science alone. In this wide-ranging work, Robert J. Richards shows how the Romantic conception of the world influenced (and was influenced by) both the lives of the people who held it and the development of nineteenth-century science. Integrating Romantic literature, science, and philosophy with an intimate knowledge of the individuals involved-from Goethe and the brothers Schlegel to Humboldt and Friedrich and Caroline Schelling-Richards demonstrates how their tempestuous lives shaped their ideas as profoundly as their intellectual and cultural heritage. He focuses especially on how Romantic concepts of the self, as well as aesthetic and moral considerations-all tempered by personal relationships-altered scientific representations of nature. Although historians have long considered Romanticism at best a minor tributary to scientific thought, Richards moves it to the center of the main currents of nineteenth-century biology, culminating in the conception of nature that underlies Darwin's evolutionary theory. Uniting the personal and poetic aspects of philosophy and science in a way that the German Romantics themselves would have honored, The Romantic Conception of Life alters how we look at Romanticism and nineteenth-century biology.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1. Introduction: A Most Happy Encounter

2. The Early Romantic Movement

3. Schelling: The Poetry of Nature

4. Denouement: Farewell to Jena

5. Early Theories of Development: Blumenbach and Kant

6. Kielmeyer and the Organic Powers of Nature

7. Johann Christian Reil's Romantic Theories of Life and Mind, or Rhapsodies on a Cat-Piano

8. Schelling's Dynamic Evolutionism

9. Conclusion: Mechanism, Teleology, and Evolution

10. The Erotic Authority of Nature

11. Goethe's Scientific Revolution

12. Conclusion: The History of a Life in Art and Science

13. The Romantic Conception of Life

14. Darwin's Romantic Biology

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612902048

9781282902046

1282902040

9780226712185

0226712184

OCLC:

688242199