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Thesis ID: CBB001562853

Novalis and the Two Cultures: The Chiasmic Discourse of Mathematics, Philosophy and Poetics (2009)

Ulfers, Friedrich
New York University
Publication date: 2009
Language: English

Publication Date: 2009
Edition Details: Advisor: Ulfers, Friedrich
Physical Details: 320 pp.

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Mysticism Thought experiments Romanticism Mathematics Science and literature Experiments and experimentation Chaos theory; chaotic behavior 18th century Germany Novalis

In his encyclopedic novel The Novices of Sais , Friedrich von Hardenberg, who is known to us by his pen name Novalis, conducts a series of thought experiments with mathematics, alchemy, space-time theory and chaos theory, which play a leading role in the development of the Romantic movement as well as in post-classical science and mathematics. He noted that he would be interested in an essay on the theoreticians and the use of the speculative sciences: "Essai üb(er) die Theoretiker und den Nutzen der Speculativen Wissenschaften." Although he never wrote such an essay, his encyclopedic novel, The Novices of Sais is an excellent expression of these sentiments and concerns. Although we know Novalis best as a novelist and poet, he had a passionate interest in mathematics, mysticism, science and experimentation, seriality, philosophy, and the notion of chaos. It is impossible to know what may have happened had he not died at the young age of twenty-eight, but, fortunately, he left us a copious collection of notes and studies, some of which have only recently been published. Novalis believed that every aspect of learning and knowledge related to every other aspect. He was appalled by the trend to isolate scientific outcomes and fields of knowledge. His novel is an exploration of the interconnectedness of the above-mentioned areas, as well as a movement from the linear and classical paradigm to a non-linear and post-classical vision of knowledge. What I will argue in my dissertation is that much, if not most, of the interpretation of the scientific-mathematical aspect of Novalis's novel The Novices of Sais has fallen short of understanding its very framework, as well as understanding how it anticipates a new scientific paradigm.

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Description Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. . ProQuest Doc. ID 304957722.

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