Heritage of the romantic philosophy in post-Linnaean botany Reichenbach's reception of Goethe's metamorphosis of plants as a methodological and philosophical framework.
This paper demonstrates the importance of the reception and development of Goethe's metamorphosis of plants as a methodological and philosophical framework in the history of botanical theories. It proposes a focus on the textbooks written by the German botanist Ludwig Reichenbach and his first attempt to use Goethe's idea of metamorphosis of plants as fundamental to his natural system of plants published under the title 'Botany for Women', in German Botanik für Damen (1828). In this book, Reichenbach paid particular attention to Goethe's sensitive views on the essence of nature; he regarded Goethe's idea of metamorphosis in the plant kingdom as an ideal model to interpret connections of natural phenomena, in particular as a conceptual frame for a natural system. Furthermore, he aimed to develop the philosophical statement of the metamorphosis, in which he called for nature-philosophical conceptions in order to materialize his representation of plant "affinities," and of a kind of "ontogeny" of the whole plant kingdom. This paper demonstrates that, between speculative views and empirical attempts, the extent to which Reichenbach actually belonged to a new "school" of thought, which left its mark on the history and philosophy of botany.
Robin
Nicolas
N
Clusius Research Professor, Scaliger Institute and Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Leiden University, PO Box 9501, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands. n.f.g.robin@hum.leidenuniv.nl
D001901:Botany / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D019368:Nature; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*