Article ID: CBB001212112

Alexandre de Humboldt et le Marquis de Laplace (2012)

unapi

Knobloch, Eberhard (Author)


Journal Electronique d'Histoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique
Volume: 8
Pages: 1--18


Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Part of a special section on Laplace.
Language: French

In 1798, Alexander von Humboldt was in Paris for the second time where he made the acquaintance of Laplace and many other French scientists. The two giants of science remained in contact up to the end of Laplace's life. The paper would like to give a reliable analysis of the relation between these two outstanding scholars. To that end it studies their published works, their partially still unpublished correspondences, and Humboldt's American journal. While Humboldt publicly praised his French friend, his correspondences with scholars like Lagrange, Gauss, Bessel, Jacobi, etc. reveal interesting other aspects of this relationship. Both of them helped the other to become a member of their own national academies of sciences. Correspondingly, Humboldt publicly praised Laplace's two main works on celestial mechanics that deeply influenced his own writings and scientific activities. Privately he spoke about less satisfying characteristics of Laplace's books. Humboldt frankly avowed his own limited understanding of higher mathematics and honestly admired Laplace's mathematical genius.

...More
Included in

Article Mazliak, Laurent (2012) Introduction. Journal Electronique d'Histoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique (p. 1). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212112/

Similar Citations

Book Humboldt, Alexander von; William, Frederick; Leitner, Ulrike; Knobloch, Eberhard; Holtz, Bärbel; (2013)
Alexander von Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm IV: Briefwechsel (/isis/citation/CBB001551275/)

Book Sandra Rebok; (2014)
Humboldt and Jefferson: A Transatlantic Friendship of the Enlightenment (/isis/citation/CBB956694560/)

Book Hahn, Roger; (2013)
Correspondance de Pierre Simon Laplace (1749--1827) (/isis/citation/CBB001450201/)

Book Hahn, Roger; (2013)
Correspondance de Pierre Simon Laplace (1749--1827) (/isis/citation/CBB001211954/)

Book Schwarz, Oliver; Schwarz, Ingo; (2013)
Alexander von Humboldt, Johann Franz Encke, Briefwechsel (/isis/citation/CBB001551226/)

Article Passeron, Irène; (2008)
La correspondance de d'Alembert: un réseau européen? (/isis/citation/CBB000933172/)

Article Dena Goodman; (2020)
What It Meant to Be Linnaean in Revolutionary France (/isis/citation/CBB717509066/)

Article Bertucci, Paola; Courcelle, Olivier; (2015)
Artisanal Knowledge, Expertise, and Patronage in Early Eighteenth-Century Paris: The Société Des Arts (1728--36) (/isis/citation/CBB001550449/)

Book Bruno Belhoste; (2019)
Paris Savant: Capital of Science in the Age of Enlightenment (/isis/citation/CBB313251761/)

Chapter Jean-Claude Martzloff; (2015)
Yixing (一行) in Paris (/isis/citation/CBB868044089/)

Article Aicardi, Christine; (2009)
The Analytic Spirit and the Paris Institution for the Deaf-Mutes, 1760--1830 (/isis/citation/CBB000931551/)

Chapter Jahn, Ilse; (2003)
Alexander von Humboldt und die Beziehungen zwischen Pariser und Berliner Zoologen (/isis/citation/CBB000800268/)

Article Fauque, Danielle M. E.; (2008)
An Englishman Abroad: Charles Blagden's Visit to Paris in 1783 (/isis/citation/CBB000930239/)

Authors & Contributors
Hahn, Roger
Aicardi, Christine
Belhoste, Bruno
Bertucci, Paola
Cams, Mario
Courcelle, Olivier
Journals
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Bollettino di Storia delle Scienze Matematiche
Eighteenth-Century Studies
History of Science
HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Publishers
Akademie-Verlag
Brepols
Oxford University Press
Springer International
University of Virginia Press
V&R Unipress
Concepts
Societies; institutions; academies
Correspondence and corresponding
Mathematics
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Astronomy
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
People
Humboldt, Alexander von
Laplace, Pierre Simon
Alembert, Jean le Rond d'
Banks, Joseph
Berthollet, Claude Louis
Blagden, Sir Charles
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
20th century, early
Enlightenment
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
Paris (France)
France
Berlin (Germany)
Germany
London (England)
England
Institutions
Académie des Sciences, Paris
École des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Société Philomathique de Paris
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
Anatomical-zootomical Museum in Berlin
Comments

Be the first to comment!

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

Log in or register to comment