Table Of ContentThis content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
! !
Experimenting at the Boundaries of Life
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Bernard Lightman, Editor
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Experimenting at the Boundaries of Life
Organic Vitality in Germany around 1800
! !
Joan Steigerwald
university of pittsburgh press
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260
Copyright © 2019, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-4553-6
ISBN 10: 0-8229-4553-3
Cover art: Caspar David Friedrich, Early Snow, c. 1828 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg).
Cover design: Alex Wolfe
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on Translations and Citations xi
Introduction 3
! !
1 Organic Vitality in the Late Eighteenth Century:
Lebenskräfte and Experimental Reasoning 41
! !
2 Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment:
Organisms as Reciprocally Means and Ends of Themselves 95
! !
3 Blurring the Boundaries of Life:
Organic Vitality and Instruments of Inquiry in the 1790s 147
! !
4 Jena Connections:
A Science of Knowledge, Romantic Aesthetics,
and Languages of Nature 207
! !
5 Schelling’s Philosophy of Life:
Boundary Concepts and the Natural History
of the World Soul 269
! !
6 The Science of Biology:
Organic Vitality and the Boundaries of Life 323
Conclusion: Afterlife 391
Notes 399
Bibliography 427
Index 455
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:22:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:22:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Acknowledgments
Given the interdisciplinary character of this project, it has led me to engage with
scholars across different disciplines or fields of research—history of science and
science studies, Romantic and German studies, and the history of philosophy.
Although scholars in these different areas regularly read each other’s work and
talk to each other, it is less common for scholars to present at conferences and
publish in journals outside their disciplinary home. In offering my own work in
a variety of scholarly venues, I have tended to adapt to the discursive conventions
of each field. The challenge of writing this book has been to bring those different
discourses into conversation. The danger is that historians of science will find
the philosophical sections too theoretical, and those interested in philosophy
and theory will find the historical discussions too empirically detailed. But I
argue and attempt to demonstrate that similar problems were being addressed
by scientists, philosophers, and Romantic writers in the years around 1800, that
they engaged each other’s work, and that they enlisted similar methodical devices
to address overlapping concerns. Although the book is largely structured around
individuals, in order to explore their work in depth, it locates the work of each
within larger debates and contexts. The book as a whole seeks to show how the
challenges facing scientists in experimentally exploring and trying to conceive
organic vitality influenced the epistemic questions posed by philosophers of
nature, which in turn shaped scientific research, and how reflections by Roman-
tic writers on the role of figurative languages informing understandings of the
natural world affected both. It is hoped that scholars interested in the history of
science, philosophy, and Romanticism will follow the arguments across chapters
to see how similar issues were addressed in these different discourses. It has
been a challenge to write for all these audiences at once, and I accept that not
all readers will find this work meets that challenge successfully.
This project has benefited from engagement with a wide range of colleagues
who were open to interdisciplinary scholarship. From its beginnings it had the
vii
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
!
viii Acknowledgments
generous support of extraordinarily accomplished scholars—Nick Jardine, David
Papineau, the late Roy Porter, Bob Richards, and Phil Sloan. Their patience
with the glacial pace of my own work has been humbling. This book also took
inspiration from the early work of a very promising group of scholars—Michael
Dettelbach, Stuart Strickland, and Maria Trumpler. I hope it lives up to some
aspects of their vision for the history of German science at the turn of the nine-
teenth century. A wider group of historians of science and STS scholars have
stimulated and shaped my work at important junctures—Cornelius Borck, Olaf
Breidbach, Soraya de Chadarevian, Patricia Fara, Sarah Franklin, Jan Golinski,
Stefan Helmreich, the late Lily Kay, Hannah Landecker, Staffan Müller-Wille,
Lynn Nyhart, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Simon Schaffer, and Jim Secord. I have
been fortunate to be welcomed into the circle of Romantic and German studies
scholars who have taught me so much about the subtleties of Romanticism.
Through meetings of the North American Society for Studies in Romanticism
I have been able to engage with a remarkably open and theoretically sophisti-
cated groups of scholars—Ian Balfour, Alan Bewell, David Clark, David Colling,
Stefani Engelstein, Nick Halmi, Jocelyn Holland, Jacques Khalip, Alice Kuzniar,
Rob Mitchell, Thomas Pfau, Arkady Plotnitsky, Tilottama Rajan, and Gabriel
Trop. Historians of philosophy have been important to my work. I have benefited
in particular from the enthusiasm and collegiality of the community of Schelling
scholars—Kyla Bruff, Anthony Bruno, Marcela Garcia, Iain Grant, Lore Hühn,
Chris Lauer, Joe Lawrence, Bruce Matthews, Sean McGrath, Tilottama Rajan,
Dale Snow, Michael Vater, Daniel Whistler, and Jason Wirth. But a wider circle
of historians of philosophy have also inspired my work at key points—Angela
Breitenbach, Hannah Ginsborg, Philippe Huneman, Peter McLaughlin, Dalia
Nassar, Marcel Quarfood, and John Zammito.
I have been especially fortunate to have a wide circle of highly accomplished
and intellectually engaging colleagues and friends in Toronto—Katey Anderson,
Steve Bailey, Ian Balfour, Amila Buturovic, Sylwia Chrostowska, David Clark,
Barbara Crow, Lucia Dacome, Marnie Ferguson, Doug Freake, Jan Hadlaw,
Edward Jones-Imhotep, Avron Kulak, Bernie Lightman, Aryn Martin, Hélène
Mialet, Michelle Murphy, Natasha Myers, Mike Pettit, Cate Sandilands, Rusty
Shteir, Nell Tenhaaf, Daphne Winland, and Selma Zecevic. Their conversation,
stimulus, and support have been invaluable.
York University has provided a conducive setting for my work, allowing me
to explore my varied academic personalities. The Department of Humanities,
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
!
Acknowledgments ix
incredibly supportive chairs in Andrea Davis, Doug Freake, and Patrick Taylor,
and the remarkable collegiality of the members of the department, have made
working at a large university enjoyable and meaningful. I have also been fortu-
nate to teach in the graduate programs in Humanities, Science and Technology
Studies, and Social and Political Thought. I have learned a tremendous amount
from amazing graduate students, especially Robert Brown, Angela Cope, Juan
Felipe Guevara-Aristizabal, Jenny Kerber, Jessica Lee, Ellie Lousen, Ben Mitchell,
Greg Rupik, Chris Satoor, Paul Toro, Jeffrey Wajsberg, and Ben Woodard.
Numerous libraries have provided invaluable assistance for my research. I
would like especially to thank librarians at the British Library, Bayerische Sta-
atsbibliothek, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Niedersächsische
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Robarts and Thomas Fisher Rare
Book Libraries in Toronto, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Thüringer Universitäts-
und Landesbibliothek Jena, and York University Library.
Research on this book has been generously supported through funding
from York University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science.
I would like to thank University of Pittsburgh Press for their support in
bringing this work to print, and especially the able editorial assistance of Abby
Collier, Alex Wolfe, and Bernie Lightman. I would also like to thank the care
with which the reviewers read the manuscript and their insightful critical com-
ments. I would like to extend a special thanks to Marnie Ferguson for reading
the book with careful attention.
Finally, I am tremendously grateful to my family for their unfailing support
over the years. The Morrison clan has been extraordinarily generous in welcom-
ing me into their midst in Toronto. Thanks to Kate for her vibrant presence in
our lives. I would like to express my immense gratitude to the extended Steiger-
wald family for their ongoing love and care, and their example and inspiration.
To Ed, for his deep love and grounding, I owe more than I can express.
This content downloaded from 54.66.212.33 on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:21:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
