The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe"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. |
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Page iv
... Theories of Mind and Behavior ( 1987 ) and The Meaning of Evolution : The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin's Theory ( 1992 ) . The University of Chicago Press , Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago ...
... Theories of Mind and Behavior ( 1987 ) and The Meaning of Evolution : The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin's Theory ( 1992 ) . The University of Chicago Press , Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago ...
Page ix
... CONCEPTION OF Life 5 Early Theories of Development : Blumenbach and Kant Embryology and Theories of Descent in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 211 17 114 193 207 Blumenbach's Theory of the Bildungstrieb 216 Kant's Theory of ...
... CONCEPTION OF Life 5 Early Theories of Development : Blumenbach and Kant Embryology and Theories of Descent in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 211 17 114 193 207 Blumenbach's Theory of the Bildungstrieb 216 Kant's Theory of ...
Page x
... Theories of Contemporaries 292 Theory of Dynamic Evolution 298 Nature as a Dynamically Shifting Balance of Forces 294 9 Conclusion : Mechanism , Teleology , and Evolution Appendix : Theories of Irritability , Sensibility , and Vital ...
... Theories of Contemporaries 292 Theory of Dynamic Evolution 298 Nature as a Dynamically Shifting Balance of Forces 294 9 Conclusion : Mechanism , Teleology , and Evolution Appendix : Theories of Irritability , Sensibility , and Vital ...
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... Theory of the Skull : Goethe's Dispute with Oken and the Truth of Memory 491 12 Conclusion : The History of a Life in Art and Science PART FOUR EPILOGUE 13 The Romantic Conception of Life 14 Darwin's Romantic Biology The Romantic ...
... Theory of the Skull : Goethe's Dispute with Oken and the Truth of Memory 491 12 Conclusion : The History of a Life in Art and Science PART FOUR EPILOGUE 13 The Romantic Conception of Life 14 Darwin's Romantic Biology The Romantic ...
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Contents
A Most Happy Encounter | 1 |
The Early Romantic Movement | 17 |
The Poetry of Nature | 114 |
Farewell to Jena | 193 |
The Meaning of Romanticism | 199 |
Blumenbach and Kant | 207 |
Kielmeyer and the Organic Powers of Nature | 238 |
Johann Christian Reils Romantic Theories of Life and Mind | 252 |
Mechanism Teleology and Evolution | 307 |
The Erotic Authority of Nature | 325 |
Goethes Scientific Revolution | 407 |
The History of a Life in Art and Science | 503 |
The Romantic Conception of Life | 511 |
555 | |
573 | |
579 | |
Other editions - View all
The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe Robert J. Richards No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
absolute aesthetic Alexander von Humboldt animals archetype argued artist beauty became Berlin Bildungstrieb biology Blumenbach Carl August causal century Charles Darwin Charlotte von Stein Christian conception consciousness creative Critique discussion Einleitung empirical essay evolution experience feeling Fichte Fichte's forces Friedrich Schelling Friedrich Schiller Friedrich Schlegel genius German Goethe Goethe's Goethes Briefe Hardenberg Henrik Steffens Herder human Ibid ideal ideas Ideen individual infinite initially intellectual intuition Jena Johann Johann Christian Reil Johann Friedrich Blumenbach judgment Kant Kant's Kantian Karl Kielmeyer kind later laws lectures letter Lorenz Oken mind moral morphology nature Naturphilosophie Novalis object Oken organic original philosophy plants poem poet poetic poetry principle produced Reil Reil's relationship Romantic Romanticism Sämtliche Werke Schelling's Schellings Werke Schiller Schleiermacher scientific seems skull species Spinoza Steffens Stein structure theory thought tion transcendental ture University Verlag vertebrate vols Weimar Weltseele Werther Wilhelm Schlegel wrote young