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

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910459072903321
• Autore: Richards Robert J (Robert John), <1942->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c2002
• ISBN: 1-282-90204-0; 9786612902048; 0-226-71218-4
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (609 p.)
• Collana: Science and its conceptual foundations
• Disciplina: 830.9/145
• Soggetti: Romanticism - Germany; German literature - 18th century - History and criticism; German literature - 19th century - History and criticism; Literature and science - Germany; Philosophy, German; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- 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
• Sommario/riassunto: "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.