Article contents
Lorenz Oken (1779–1851): Naturphilosophie and the reform of natural history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2017
Abstract
The paper focuses on the work of Lorenz Oken (1779–1851) in an attempt to make sense of the role played by Romantic Naturphilosophie in the development of natural history in Germany at the turn of the nineteenth century. It first focuses on the role played by Schelling and his Würzburg circle in the development of Oken's early views on natural history, then reconstructs Oken's mature programme for a reform of animal classification.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2017
References
1 Jardine, Nicholas, The Scenes of Inquiry: On the Reality of Questions in the Sciences, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, p. 2 Google Scholar.
2 Jardine, op. cit. (1), p. 1.
3 Jardine, op. cit. (1), p. 232.
4 Jardine, Nicholas, ‘ Naturphilosophie and the kingdoms of nature’, in Jardine, Nicholas, Secord, Jim and Spary, Emma (eds.), Cultures of Natural History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 230–245, 242Google Scholar.
5 Zittel, Manfred, ‘Lorenz Oken und Goethe: Die Geschichte einer heillosen Beziehung’, in Breidbach, Olaf, Fliedner, Hans-Joachim and Ries, Klaus (eds.), Lorenz Oken (1779–1851): Ein politischer Naturphilosoph, Weimar: Herman Böhlhaus, 2001, pp. 149–182 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Kanz, Kai Thorsten, Nationalismus und international Zusammenarbeit in den Naturwissenschaften: Die deutschfranzösischen Wissenschaftsbeziehungen zwischen Revolution und Restauration 1789–1832, Stuttgart: Steiner, 1997 Google Scholar; Wellmann, Janina, ‘Pariser Wallfahrten: Deutsch–französischer Wissenschaftstransfer am Beispiel Lorenz Okens und Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’, Francia (2001) 27, pp. 25–48 Google Scholar; Schmitt, Stéphane, Les parties répétées: Histoire d'une question anatomique, Paris: Editions du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, 2004 Google Scholar; Sloan, Philip, ‘On the edge of evolution’, introduction to Owen, R., Hunterian Lectures in Comparative Anatomy, May–June, 1837, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 3–72 Google Scholar; Sloan, ‘Kant and the British bioscience’, in Huneman, Philippe (ed.), Understanding Purpose: Kant and the Philosophy of Biology, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2007, pp. 149–171 Google Scholar.
7 Reill, Peter Hannc, Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, p. 209 Google Scholar.
8 Kant, Immanuel, Kritik der Reinen Vernunft 2: Auflage 1787, Ausgabe, Akademie, Band III, Berlin: Königlich Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1968, p. 691 Google Scholar, emphasis added.
9 Jardine, op. cit. (1), p. 239.
10 Oken, Lorenz, Elements of Physiophilosophy (tr. Tulk, Alfred from Lehrbuch der Naturphilosophie), London: Ray Society, 1847, p. 45 Google Scholar.
11 Jardine, op. cit. (1), p. 241.
12 Werner Gerabek, ‘Lorenz Oken und die Medizin der Romantik: Die Würzburger Zeit des Naturforschers (1804–1805)’, in Breidbach et al., op. cit. (5), pp. 52–72, 53.
13 Quoted in Gerabek, op. cit. (12), 58–59. Oken, Lorenz, Die Zeugung, Bamberg and Würzburg: Joseph Anton Göbhardt, 1805, p. 101 Google Scholar.
14 Oken, Lorenz, Beiträge zur vergleichenden Zoologie, Anatomie und Physiologie, Band 1, Bamberg and Würzburg: Joseph Anton Göbhardt, 1806, p. 103 Google Scholar.
15 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 104.
16 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 107, original emphasis.
17 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 111, original emphasis.
18 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 112, original emphasis.
19 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 113, original emphasis.
20 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 114, original emphasis.
21 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 116, original emphasis.
22 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 117, original emphasis.
23 Oken, op. cit. (14), p. 118.
24 Lorenz Oken, Über die Bedeutung der Schädelknochen, Göttingen: Göpferdt. Ein Programm beim Antritt der Professur an der Gesamt-Universität zu Jena von Dr. Oken, correspondirendem Mitgliede der königl. Societät der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Christian Gottfried Göpferdt, 1807.
25 Oken, op. cit. (24), p. xvi.
26 Rehbock, Philip, ‘Transcendental anatomy’, in Cunningham, Andrew and Jardine, Nicholas (eds.), Romanticism and the Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 144–159 Google Scholar; Sloan, opera cit. (6); Wellmann, op. cit. (6).
27 Foucault, Michel, Les mots et les choses, Paris: Gallimard, 1966 Google Scholar; Jardine, op. cit. (1), pp. 242–243.
28 Oken, Lorenz, Abriß der System der Biologie: Zum Behufe seiner Vorlesungen, Göttingen: Vandenhoek und Ruprecht, 1805, p. ix Google Scholar.
29 Oken, op. cit. (28), p. x.
30 E.g. Lenoir, T., The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Nineteenth-Century German Biology, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1982 Google Scholar.
A correction has been issued for this article:
- 4
- Cited by
Linked content
Please note a has been issued for this article.