Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer (1765-1844) was the
‘father of philosophy of nature’ owing to his profound influence on German
Idealist and Romantic Naturphilosophie. With the recent growth of interest in
Idealist and Romantic philosophy of nature in the UK and abroad, the
importance of Kielmeyer’s work is being increasingly recognised and special
attention is being paid to his influence on biology’s development as a
distinct discipline at the end of the eighteenth century. In
this exciting new book, Lydia Azadpour and
Daniel Whistler present the first ever English translations of key texts by
Kielmeyer, along with contextual and interpretative essays by leading international
scholars, who are experts on the philosophy of nature and the formation of
the life sciences in the late eighteenth century. The topics they cover
include: the laws of nature, the concept of force, the meaning of ‘organism’,
the logic of recapitulation, Kielmeyer and ecology, sexual differentiation in
animal life and Kielmeyer’s relationship to Kant, Schelling and Hegel. In
doing so, they provide a comprehensive English reference to Kielmeyer’s
historical and contemporary significance.
1. Introduction: Kielmeyer then and now. Lydia Azadpour (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) and Daniel Whistler (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 2. Kielmeyer’s Fame and Fate: An Intellectual Biography. Kai Torsten Kanz (The University of Lübeck, Germany) PART ONE: TEXTS 3. On the Relations between Organic Forces. Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer. trans. Lydia Azadpour (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 4. Selections from Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer’s correspondence. trans. Iain Hamilton Grant (University of West England, UK) 5. On Infusioria. Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer. trans. Lydia Azadpour (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) PART TWO: INTERPRETATIONS 6. Kielmeyer between Mechanics and Organicism. Jocelyn Holland (California Institute of Technology, USA) 7. Force and Law in Kielmeyer’s 1793 Address. Andrew Cooper (University of Warwick, UK) 8. Comparative Physiology and the New Era of Natural History: Kielmeyer as the Father of Romantic Biology. Andrea Gambarotto (The Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) 9. Organic Physics as a Comparative Phenomenology of the Organic. Thomas Bach (University of Jena, Germany) 10. Recapitulation All the Way Down? Morphogenesis without Final Form in Kielmeyer’s ‘new epoch in Natural History’. Iain Hamilton Grant (University of West England, UK) 11. Reproduction, Procreation and the Earth. The Place of ‘Sex’ in Kielmeyer’s ‘Economy of Organic Nature’. Susanne Lettow (The Free University of Berlin, Germany) 12. The ‘Great Machine of the Organic World’: Dynamics in Schelling and Kielmeyer. Lydia Azadpour (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 13. Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature: The Case of Kielmeyer. Benjamin Berger (Haverford College, USA)
Lydia Azadpour is a PhD researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her primary research areas are metaphysics, the philosophy of nature, and the history of science in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century German philosophy. Daniel Whistler is Lecturer in Modern European Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. His research interests are the history of philosophy: German Idealism, its origins and aftermath and nineteenth-century French philosophy.
Reviews for Kielmeyer and the Organic World: Texts and Interpretations
For readers interested in the history and philosophy of science this collection is a worthwhile exploration, providing many insights into a complex, innovative, and prescient thinker. * CHOICE * It is highly gratifying that at last for English readers the major contribution of Kielmeyer to the development of life science will be accessible and richly interpreted. Excellent translations and commentary by the premier scholars in the field mark this as a landmark contribution. * John H. Zammito, Baker College Chair for History of Science, Technology and Innovation, Rice University, USA * These probing interpretative essays place Kielmeyer’s work in relation to the broader scientific and philosophical concerns of his time and demonstrate Kielmeyer’s significance for the historicity of nature, epistemic questions facing natural inquiry, and understandings of the relationships of inorganic and organic nature. This timely edition marks a resurgence of interest in Kielmeyer and provides critical access to his work for Anglophone scholars. * Joan Steigerwald, Associate Professor of Humanities, Science and Technology Studies, York University, Canada *
