
The Romantic Conception of Life
Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe
Robert J. Richards(Author)
University of Chicago Press
2nd Edition
Published on 1. December 2002
Book
Hardback
576 pages
978-0-226-71210-9 (ISBN)
Description
"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 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 19th-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, and 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 centre of the main currents of 19th-century biology, culminating in the conception of nature underlying Darwin's evolutionary theory. Uniting the personal and poetic aspects of philosophy and science in a way that the German Romantics themselves would have honoured, "The Romantic Conception of Life" alters how we look at Romanticism and 19th-century biology.
Although historians have long considered Romanticism at best a minor tributary to scientific thought, Richards moves it to the centre of the main currents of 19th-century biology, culminating in the conception of nature underlying Darwin's evolutionary theory. Uniting the personal and poetic aspects of philosophy and science in a way that the German Romantics themselves would have honoured, "The Romantic Conception of Life" alters how we look at Romanticism and 19th-century biology.
Reviews / Votes
"A very important book which will be a milestone in the study of Romanticism and nineteenth-century biology. Extremely well written and very readable, The Romantic Conception of Life covers figures central to the development of modern biology who have hardly been treated at all in English. It will be useful to philosophers, historians of science, and Germanists alike." - Frederick Beiser, Syracuse UniversityMore details
Series
Edition
2nd ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
5 colour plates, 39 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 160 mm
Weight
960 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-71210-9 (9780226712109)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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E-Book
04/2010
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
from
€33.39
Available for download
Person
Robert J. Richards is professor of history, philosophy, and psychology and director of the Fishbein Center for the History of Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior and The Meaning of Evolution: The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin's Theory, both published by the University of Chicago Press.