Article ID: CBB001510256

Darwin: German Mystic or French Rationalist? (2015)

unapi

Ghiselin, Michael T. (Author)


History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Volume: 36, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 305-311


Publication Date: 2015
Edition Details: Part of a Series: Crossroads between nature and culture: Papers in honour of Christiane Groeben
Language: English

The notion that Charles Darwin embraced the German Romantic tradition seems plausible, given the early influence of Alexander von Humboldt. But this view fails to do justice to other scientific traditions. Darwin was a protégé of the Englishman John Stevens Henslow and was a follower of the Scott Charles Lyell. He had important debts to French scientists, notably Henri Milne-Edwards, Étienne and Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Alphonse de Candolle. Many Germans were quite supportive of Darwin, but not all of these were encumbered by idealistic metaphysical baggage. Both Darwin and Anton Dohrn treated science as very much a cosmopolitan enterprise.

...More
Included in

Article Bernardi, Giorgio; Fantini, Bernardino; Dröscher, Ariane (2015) Crossroads between Nature and Culture: An Introduction. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (pp. 301-304). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001510256/

Similar Citations

Article Hajo Greif; (2015)
The Darwinian tension: Romantic science and the causal laws of nature (/isis/citation/CBB515135796/)

Book Kelley, Theresa M.; (2012)
Clandestine Marriage: Botany and Romantic Culture (/isis/citation/CBB001321257/)

Book Amanda Jo Goldstein; (2017)
Sweet Science: Romantic Materialism and the New Logics of Life (/isis/citation/CBB817048513/)

Book Naumann, Bernd; Plank, Frans; Hofbauer, Gottfried; (1992)
Language and earth: Elective affinities between the emerging sciences of linguistics and geology (/isis/citation/CBB000054521/)

Article Jenkins, Bill; (2015)
Henry H. Cheek and Transformism: New Light on Charles Darwin's Edinburgh Background (/isis/citation/CBB001552649/)

Book Blanchard, Pascal; (2008)
Human Zoos: Science and Spectacle in the Age of Colonial Empires (/isis/citation/CBB001033417/)

Multimedia Object Mark Klobas; Jürgen P. Melzer; (2020)
Jürgen Melzer, “Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation” (Harvard UP, 2020) (/isis/citation/CBB185480697/)

Book Tresch, John; (2012)
The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science and Technology after Napoleon (/isis/citation/CBB001210039/)

Book (1997)
Le Muséum au premier siècle de son histoire (/isis/citation/CBB000076024/)

Book Joel Faflak; (2017)
Marking Time: Romanticism and Evolution (/isis/citation/CBB567211992/)

Article Archibald, J. David; (2012)
Darwin's Two Competing Phylogenetic Trees: Marsupials as Ancestors or Sister Taxa? (/isis/citation/CBB001251350/)

Article González Recio, José Luis; (2011)
Entre John Herschel y Charles Lyell: los compromisos metodológicos y teóricos en la geología de Darwin (/isis/citation/CBB001220802/)

Article Mazzocut-Mis, Maddalena; (1993)
The “unity of organic composition” and the birth of teratology (/isis/citation/CBB000042263/)

Thesis Burkett, Andrew; (2008)
The Ministry of Chance: British Romanticism, Darwinian Evolutionary Theory and the Aleatory (/isis/citation/CBB001561190/)

Book Ursula Klein; (2015)
Humboldts Preußen: Wissenschaft und Technik im Aufbruch (/isis/citation/CBB890388635/)

Thesis Goldstein, Amanda Jo; (2011)
“Sweet Science”: Romantic Materialism and the New Sciences of Life (/isis/citation/CBB001567306/)

Book Ulrich Päßler; Alexander von Humboldt; Jean Baptiste Boussinggault; (2015)
Alexander von Humboldt - Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, Briefwechsel (/isis/citation/CBB790425217/)

Article Christine E. Jackson; (2020)
William Yarrell (1784–1856), friend and adviser to Charles Darwin (/isis/citation/CBB057584196/)

Authors & Contributors
Goldstein, Amanda Jo
Faflak, Joel
Klobas, Mark
Ulrich Päßler
Melzer, Jürgen P.
Lansley, Charles Morris
Concepts
Romanticism
Science and literature
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Evolution
Natural science
Science and culture
Time Periods
19th century
Enlightenment
18th century
Modern
20th century
Places
Great Britain
France
Germany
Japan
Europe
England
Institutions
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
University of Edinburgh
Comments

Be the first to comment!

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

Log in or register to comment