The Transformation of Science in Germany at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century: Physics, Mathematics, Poetry, and Philosophy PDF
Preview The Transformation of Science in Germany at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century: Physics, Mathematics, Poetry, and Philosophy
THE TRANSFORMATION OF SCIENCE IN GERM Y AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Physics, Mathematics, Poetry, and Philosophy Edited by Olaf Breidbach and Roswitha Burwick With a Foreword by Steffen Siegel The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston.QueenstoneLa.mpeter Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Control Number: 2013930867 The transformation of science in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century : physics, mathematics, poetry, and philosophy / edited by Olaf Breidbach and Roswitha Burwick ; with a foreword by Steffen Siegel. 1. Science--philosophy and social aspects. 2. Philosophy--general. 3. Nineteenth century studies. 4. German studies. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-4537-6 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 0-7734-4537-4 (hardcover) 1. Title. hors serie. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British ibra Copyright CO 2013 Olaf Breidbach and Roswitha Burwick All rights reserved. For information contact � The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press � Box 450 Box 67 � Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario � USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS ILO The Edwin Mellen Press. Ltd. Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT Printed in the United States of America Table of Contents Preface Steffen Siegel � Foreword vii Olaf Breidbach and Roswitha Burwick Introduction. Physics around 1800. Art Science or Philosophy? An Approach Olaf Breidbach and Roswitha Burwick � 1 Schelling's Speculative Physics� 19 Schelling's Approach and Position around 1800� 19 Realities of Experience around 1800� 24 Schelling's Order of Nature and the Philosophy of Nature as a Basis of Modern Dialectics� 29 Naturphilosophie in the Perspective of Transcendental Philosophy� 32 Speculative Physics� 36 Dynamic and Speculative Physics� 37 Thinking in Terms of Process and the Doctrine of Metamorphosis� 40 Principlum and Productivity� 42 Polarity and Dialectics� 46 Speculation and Empiricism� 50 Natural Science in its Most Rigorous Sense� 55 Olaf Breidbach "Art is the Expression of Eternal Being": Achim von Arnim's Poetics of Nature� 69 Immateriality as a Basic Principle of Arnim's "Specielle Kraftlehre" in Versuch einer Theorie der elektrischen Erscheinungen� 72 The "Specielle Kraftlehre" as a Model of Interaction and Integration in the Sciences� 78 Arnim's Theory of the Interconnectedness of the Sciences and the Arts� 91 Arnim's Theory of the Limits of Scientific Knowledge about the World� 104 Roswitha Burwick Mathematics around 1800� 125 Introduction� 125 The Seventeenth-Century Prelude to Eighteenth-Century Mathematics� 128 Analysis in the Eighteenth-Century The Interaction between Analysis and the Physical Sciences� 130 Communicating Results in Analysis to the Scientific Community� 134 Foundations of the Calculus� 139 Algebra in the Eighteenth-Century� 144 Number Theory in the Eighteenth-Century� 147 Geometry� 150 Probability and Statistics� 155 The French Revolution� 159 Transition from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century� 164 Conclusion� 169 Judith V. Grabiner Goethe's Wahlverwandtschafien and Contemporary Physics � around 1800 183 Helmut Hiihn The Collision between Physics and Metaphysics in England around 1800� 221 Kathleen Lundeen Abraham Gottlob Werner: Money, Romance, Classification� 255 Life and Works� 259 Werner's Scientific and Romantic Legacy� 277 Andre Wakefield The Physics of Coleridgean Romanticism� 289 Dometa Wiegand Brothers Jakob Friedrich Fries on Inference Types in the Natural Sciences� 315 Philosophy as a Methodology for the Natural Sciences� 318 Scientific and Aesthetic Argumentation� 325 Maximal Proximity to a Constitutive Theory: Rational Mechanics� 327 Rational Proof in Newton's Rational Mechanics� 333 Inductive Proof and the Fourth Methodical Rule� 336 From a Regulative to a Constitutive Theory: Electricity and Magnetism� 343 Towards a Metacritique of Critical Rationalism� 352 Temilo van Zantwijk Notes on Contributors� 363 Index� 367 Preface On July 20, 1794, two men on their way home from a meeting of the Jena Naturforschende Gesellschaft, engaged in a spontaneous discussion about the existence of an "archetypical plant" (Ur-- pjlanze). This seemingly casual conversation was documented in one of the most important autobiographical accounts of the early 19th century. Published as "Gluckliches Ereignis" ("A Happy Coincidence") in 1817, the scene is memorable because of its far-reaching consequences on the one hand, and on the other ex- actly because its purported insignificance is so characteristic for its time (Goethe 86-90). Of course anyone at all familiar with 18th century Ger- man intellectual history will immediately identify this "Happy Coincidence" as the first encounter between Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. It was this dialogue that launched the Wunderjahr in Jena ("Miracle Year in Jena") which Theodore Ziolkowski traced so meticulously in his fine monograph a few years ago. It also marked the beginning of a decade of intense collaboration between the two men, ended prematurely only by Schiller's death in 1805. As a result, the scene Goethe described almost 25 years later is indeed one of the most important memory sites of German literary history—exactly the reason why it has been recounted time and again. At the same time, it is also an important milestone in 19th century natural history. It's easy enough to forget who was talk- ing with whom, what was being discussed, and what arguments were used. Botanical questions were surely only of superficial interest that evening, and the conversation most likely quickly morphed into a discussion of natural philosophy. Schiller quite rightly pointed out that what they were debating were fundamen- tal epistemological questions. With regards to the archetypical plant, Goethe reports, Schiller merely commented: "That's not an experience, it's an idea"--deftly juxtaposing empiricism and speculative philosophy. Above all, it is important to point out that neither considered himself an expert, not in philosophy or in the natural sciences. Educated as a lawyer, Goethe had spent the previous two decades in public service; as minister of the Duke of Weimar, his portfolio included education, mining, armed forces, and road construction. Schiller, who had never attended a university, had been professor of Universal History at Jena University since 1789. In 1794, he had abandoned his remarkable career as a dra- matist, focusing instead on philosophical and historical writing. The seriousness and fervor with which Goethe and Schiller dis- cussed the natural sciences, demonstrate that at the time, these questions were at the forefront of intellectual discourse and by no means limited to a handful of specialists: the stage was open to everyone and intellectuals from many disciplines acted on it, each contributing in their very own way. Their lively participa- tion raises the question: What was natural science around 1800— art, science, or philosophy? The contributors to this volume address the issue using physics as an example. The essays present two different ap- proaches: a reconstruction of the development of natural science and physics at that time on the one hand, and a demonstration of the complexity of their unfolding on the other. If it is true that scientific research around 1800 was central to the development II of modern science as we know it today, this applies especially to physics. The investigation of nature demanded the development of new standards of observation as well as a new and expanded terminology to describe it. Discoveries made about phenomena like electricity, galvanism, or magnetism ultimately required that the traditional approaches based of Aristotelian physics be ex- panded to accommodate a more modern understanding of physi- cal nature. During their first encounter in Jena, Goethe had ap- proached the issue from a biological perspective while Schiller had argued philosophically. The essays in this collection follow a similar trajectory, attempting to delineate boundaries that, in many instances, remain diffuse. As a result, they investigate a knowledge area permeated by many different epistemic discours- es. The topic, which engaged scholars as different as Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Achim von Arnim, Abraham Got- tlob Werner and Jakob Friedrich Fries, proved so effective and influential exactly because it could be approached from so many perspectives. The resulting discourse not only paved the way fora nat- ural science organized according to different disciplines. It also led to the establishment of physics as an academic subject at uni- versities. At the same time, it proved fruitful for literature and philosophy, disciplines that thrived exactly where Goethe and Schiller had met, creating a cultural fulcrum for Europe around 1800 (Breidbach and Ziche; Breidbach, „Ende Ereignis"). Both developments, so aptly documented in this volume, were taking place simultaneously. In fact, they presuppose each other, interact with each other, are interdependent. In an impor- tant way, the collection reconstructs the constellation of natural iii
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