Hans Christian ØRsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science: Ideas, Disciplines, Practices

ISBN-13: 9781402029790 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 442 str.

R. M. Brain; O. Knudsen; R. S. Cohen

Opis

This volume owes its origin to the perception of a puzzling paradox. Hans Christian Orsted, the great Danish scientist and philosopher, was one of the founders of modern physics through his experimental discovery in 1820 of the interaction of electricity and magnetism--a key step and model for the further unification of the forces of nature. Followers such as Maxwell and Einstein were, and today searchers worldwide are, enchanted by the hope for a completion of that grand program. In addition to Orsted's discovery of electromagnetism, his work in science included other fields, chiefly high-pressure physics and acoustics. Moreover, he belonged to that fascinating group of seekers who were deeply engaged in the Romantic tradition of the Nature Philosophers, influenced by Immanuel Kant and by religious, literary, and aesthetic currents. The scientific and philosophical speculations by Orsted and his circle also quickly stimulated the imagination of other philosophers and scientists. Among the latter were prominently Andre-Marie Ampere and Michael Faraday, whose work launched the transformation of civilization often called the Second Ind- trial Revolution, based on the invention of motors, generators, and the pervasi- ness of electricity in modern life.

Spis treści

Foreword * Gerald Holton Introduction * Robert Michael Brain List of Contributors * 'The Way from Nature to God' * Andrew D. Wilson The Other Side of Ørsted: Civil Obedience * Karen Jelved & Andrew D. Jackson The making of a Danish Kantian: science and the new civil society * Arne Hessenbruch Phrenology and Danish Romanticism * Anja Skaar Jacobsen Natural Ends and the End of Nature * Paul Guyer The Influence of Kant’s Philosophy on the Young H. C. Ørsted * Keld Nielsen & Hanne Andersen Ørsted’s Concept Of Force & Theory Of Music * Dan Charly Christensen Kant – Naturphilosophie – Electromagnetism * Michael Friedman Steffens, Ørsted and the Chemical Construction of the Earth * Ernst P. Hamm Culture of science and experiments in Jena around 1800 * Olaf Breidbach The Romantic Experiment as Fragment * Robert Michael Brain Ørsted and the Rational Unconscious * Lorraine Daston Romanticism and Resistance * Michael Dettelbach Between Enlightenment and Romanticism: The case of Dr. Thomas Beddoes * Trevor H. Levere Ørsted’s Presentation of Others’–and His Own–Work * Kenneth L. Caneva Ørsted, Ritter and Magnetochemistry * Roberto de Andrade Martins Ørsted’s Work on the Compressibility of Liquids and Gases, and His Dynamic Theory of Matter * Ole Knudsen Hans Christian Oersted’s Spiritual Interpretation of Natural Science * Frederick Gregory The Spiritual in the Material * D.M. Knight Index