Chapter ID: CBB001201840

Monist Philosophy of Science: Between Worldview and Scientific Meta-Reflection (2012)

unapi

Breadth and Depth: Monism and Scientific Meta-Reflection The monistic movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century are most often studied as aiming at a comprehensive worldview, a Weltanschauung. Typically, monists tried to generate such a worldview by transforming their scientific expertise in a particular field into an all-encompassing explanation and interpretation of the world. Monism thus needed to strike a balance between the specialist depth in studying one area of science and the breadth that is the hallmark of a worldview. Immediately, this combination of breadth and depth raises important questions. As the career paths of the monists show, many different specializations could form the basis of a monist worldview: evolutionary biology and morphology in the case of Ernst Haeckel, cellular neurology and the study of social insects in the work of Auguste Forel, and physical chemistry in Wilhelm Ostwald's monistic theorizing. There were many brands of monism. In order therefore to avoid a conflict between this plurality of scientific activities on the one hand and the clear claims at unification that lie in the very idea of monism on the other, the step from particular subject areas to complete generality had to be justified. This justification itself had to be effected by a science-based mode of reflection; monism required a strong form of scientific self- and meta-reflection. What was necessary were arguments to the effect that the specialist basis did not compromise the generality that monism aimed at.

...More
Included in
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001201840/

Similar Citations

Book Weber, Heiko; (2000)
Monistische und antimonistische Weltanschauung: Eine Auswahlbibliographie (/isis/citation/CBB000110659/)

Chapter Gliboff, Sander; (2012)
Monism and Morphology at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB001201838/)

Article Deltete, Robert J.; (2010)
Thermodynamics in Wilhelm Ostwald's Physical Chemistry (/isis/citation/CBB001230087/)

Article Brakel, Jaap van; (2013)
František Wald's Empiricism (/isis/citation/CBB001320765/)

Chapter Gregory, Frederick; (2012)
Proto-Monism in German Philosophy, Theology, and Science, 1800--1845 (/isis/citation/CBB001201835/)

Chapter Bowler, Peter J.; (2012)
Monism in Britain: Biologists and the Rationalist Press Association (/isis/citation/CBB001201841/)

Book Weir, Todd H.; (2012)
Monism: Science, Philosophy, Religion, and the History of a Worldview (/isis/citation/CBB001201833/)

Chapter Erik C. Banks; (2018)
The Case for Mach's Neutral Monism (/isis/citation/CBB571671358/)

Book Görs, Britta; Psarros, Nikolaos; Ziche, Paul; (2005)
Wilhelm Ostwald at the Crossroads between Chemistry, Philosophy, and Media Culture (/isis/citation/CBB001232593/)

Article Kragh, Helge; (2013)
Superheavy Elements and the Upper Limit of the Periodic Table: Early Speculations (/isis/citation/CBB001212074/)

Book Arabatzis, Theodore; (2006)
Representing Electrons: A Biographical Approach to Theoretical Entities (/isis/citation/CBB000741434/)

Article Deltete, Robert J.; (2012)
Planck, Ostwald, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (/isis/citation/CBB001232112/)

Book Manuel DeLanda; (2015)
Philosophical Chemistry: Genealogy of a Scientific Field (/isis/citation/CBB641899548/)

Article Hoßfeld, Uwe; Olsson, Lennart; (2003)
The Road from Haeckel: The Jena Tradition in Evolutionary Morphology and the Origins of “Evo-Devo” (/isis/citation/CBB000340573/)

Article Sunderland, Mary Evelyn; (2011)
Morphogenesis, Dictyostelium, and the Search for Shared Developmental Processes (/isis/citation/CBB001221540/)

Chapter Lustig, A. J.; (2004)
Ants and the Nature of Nature in Auguste Forel, Erich Wasmann, and William Morton Wheeler (/isis/citation/CBB000355257/)

Chapter Viswanathan, Gauri; (2012)
Monism and Suffering: A Theosophical Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB001201837/)

Authors & Contributors
Deltete, Robert J.
Sato, Keiko
Manuel DeLanda
Ziche, Paul
Weir, Todd H.
Weber, Heiko
Concepts
Philosophy of science
Monism
Physical chemistry
Evolutionary developmental biology
Science and culture
Philosophy
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
18th century
Modern
20th century
Places
Germany
Prague (Czechia)
Europe
Great Britain
Institutions
Theosophical Society
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment