title: [Georg Forster's outline of a "science of man"].
abstract: The major focus of the article is on Georg Forster's mode of elaborating a "science of man" in its theoretical and cultural contexts. The study aims at identifying Forster's distinct interest in the specificity of mankind and his interpretation of both the reasons for its diversity and its different stages of development. Forster, the articles argues, used a historicized version of Enlightenment natural history in order to analyse man a s a natural as well as a cultural being. At the same time, put anachronistically, Forster constituted the reciprocity of physical and cultural anthropology. However, he differs from Enlightenment historical thinking in that he interprets history as a contingency. Finally, the article maintains that Forster deliberately conceived of the "science of man" as a multidisciplinary empirical science.
authors: hansboedeker@web.de
authors: Hans Erich
authors: HE
authors: Bödeker
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000266:history*; D000885:Anthropology, Physical / Q000266:history*; D005007:Ethnology / Q000266:history*; D005858:Germany; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D010811:Natural Science Disciplines / Q000266:history*