The Halle Orphanage as Scientific Community: Observation, Eclecticism, and Pietism in the Early Enlightenment

213 Pages·2015·4.95 MB·English

by  Kelly Joan Whitmer

The Halle Orphanage as
Scientific Community

The Halle
Orphanage
as Scientific
Community
Observation, Eclecticism,
and Pietism in the
Early Enlightenment
KELLY JOAN WHITMER
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
KELLY JOAN WHITMER is assistant professor of history at
Sewanee: The University of the South.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 24377- 1 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 24380- 1 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226243801.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Whitmer, Kelly Joan, author.
The Halle Orphanage as scientific community : observation,
eclecticism, and pietism in the early Enlightenment / Kelly Joan
Whitmer.
pages ; cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 226- 24377- 1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 24380- 1
(e- book) 1. Waisenhaus (Halle an der Saale, Germany)—History—
18th century. 2. Science—Study and teaching—Germany—Halle an
der Saale—History—18th century. 3. Science—Germany—Halle an
der Saale—History—18th century. 4. Education—Germany—Halle
an der Saale—History—18th century. 5. Observation (Scientific
method)—Germany—Halle an der Saale—History—18th century.
6. Eclecticism—Germany—Halle an der Saale—History—18th
century. 7. Pietism—Germany—Halle an der Saale—History—18th
century. I. Title.
Q183.4.G32H35 2015
506.043'1848—dc23
2014029026
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To Charles and all of my parents

Unity of faith must flow out of wisdom,
And wisdom is building a house of unity, listen;
Those who would like to know something about the large structure:
The wise and wonderful God, who alone commands praise,
Directs me constantly toward true wisdom,
And is building, as has long been planned,
A huge house of virtue and schools of true wisdom:
In this same work, many boys allow themselves to be taught wisdom
Through the arts and sciences,
To God’s praise and honor and their parents’ reputation and happiness,
Although not every son, without difference, can study there.
Only the best ones are sent,
So that they will immediately begin to blossom and begin to love,
Until the spirit of wisdom begins to peek out of his soul,
And raw utility becomes corporally actualized.
In this school of wisdom one only takes in boys,
Who, by nature are oriented toward knowledge,
The parents can even be Jews and Turks,
It is true, Protestants attend there alongside Papists,
The children do not hear about even the slightest hint of confessional strife,
But instead learn virtues and the arts from all sides,
So that they grow in years and in wisdom,
And this means they have to work, themselves, on hundreds of things.
The same kind of project is to be seen nowhere else,
And one will find much more there than what one can speak of here,
The Orphanage in Halle is truly good and fine,
There is really nothing that can be counted against it.
JOHANN ERNST BESSLER, DER RECHTGLAUBIGE ORFFYREER
Most people would agree that learning mathematics makes other studies easier
and go more quickly than other disciplines that do not deal with logic, the art
of meditation and demonstrations. . . . After mathematics, in schools it is also
important to teach physics: a science of nature, including the essences, qualities,
powers and effects of material things in the world, best apprehended through
experience, also observations and experiments.
. . . Experience proves that the Latin young people learn in schools rarely
helps them once they leave. . . . Better would be to focus on learning more useful
languages, like German, which is often neglected, French and Italian, or English.
Geography and history are also very useful subjects to teach in schools. . . .
I like the Pädagogium and the Orphanage better than many other schools
because there the youth are directed more toward real things and forms of
knowledge that exercise their understanding than things that only confuse the
memory. Not to mention that they are far ahead of other schools in the way that
they provide instruction in Latin, German and the gallant languages and arts:
by setting a good example and offering basic directions, they give young people
practical opportunities to practice their morality and to grasp the mathemati-
cal and physical sciences through many experiments. FRIEDRICH HOFFMANN,
“VORREDE”
It would be good if the observer [der Observator] were not only a mathemati-
cian, but also a student of nature, who observed plants, animals, minerals and
other naturalia and artificialia in various locations, because this all goes together
and can be done at the same cost. The minerals will be useful for paving the
way for new mines, the plants and animals for commerce and manufacturing,
everything will contribute to the further development of physics. . . .
He must travel with special instruments. . . . What is important is a good
odometer, compasses, quadrants and similarly made instruments, large pendu-
lum clocks, levels, optical instruments, microscopes, micrometers, barometers,
good magnets, magnetic globes. Especially useful would be an Instrumentum
inclinatorium, so that magnetic inclination, which is different from declination,
could be observed. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, “CONCEPT EINER DENKSCHRIFT”
Contents
1 Introducing the Orphanage 1
2 Building a Scientific Community 20
3 Negotiating the Irenical Turn 37
4 Models and Conciliatory Seeing 60
5 An Observator and His Instrument 86
6 Extending the Orphanage 108
Acknowledgments 131 Notes 135 Bibliography 163 Index 197