Cosmos: The Universe Translated

2018 ◽  
pp. 187-232
Author(s):  
Alison E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Scientific Thought ◽  
Physical Description ◽  
The World ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Universe

This chapter is devoted to Humboldt’s last, great work Cosmos. This multi-volume ‘Sketch of a Physical Description of the World’ ranged encyclopaedically from the darkest corners of space to the smallest forms of terrestrial life, describing the larger systems at work in the natural world. But, as British reviewers were swift to query, where was God in Humboldt’s mapping of the universe? Appearing on the market in 1846, just a year after Robert Chambers’ controversial Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Humboldt’s Cosmos unavoidably underwent close scrutiny. Hitherto overlooked correspondence between Humboldt and Edward Sabine shows how the Sabines deliberately reoriented the second volume of the English translation for Longman/Murray explicitly to include references to the ‘Creator’ and thus restore Humboldt’s reputation. The fourth volume of the Longman edition on terrestrial magnetism – Edward Sabine’s specialism – included additions endorsed by Humboldt which made Sabine appear as co-writer alongside the great Prussian scientist, and Cosmos a more obviously ‘English’ product. Otté, who produced the rival translation for Bohn, was initially under pressure herself to generate ‘original’ work that differed from its rival, producing a version of a work that would remain central to scientific thought well up to the end of the nineteenth century.

scholarly journals Il Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze. Le collezioni mineralogiche e litologiche | The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence.The Mineralogical and Lithological Collections

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The University ◽  
Set Up ◽  
University Of Florence ◽  
The University ◽  
Rock Specimens

The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence, founded in 1775 by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo d'Asburgo Lorena, is one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific museums in the world. The fourth volume on the Collections of the Mineralogy and Lithology Section, published like the previous volumes by the Firenze University Press, fits perfectly in the series dedicated to the collections of the University's Museum System. The first part of the book describes in great detail the paths that led to the formation of the collections, starting with those dating to the Medici period and arriving at the specimens collected during recent expeditions. The second part illustrates and documents the extraordinary specimens of minerals, hardstone carvings and meteorites which represent the material patrimony of this section. Particular attention is given to the holotypes, the Elban Collection and the minerals of pegmatites, as well as the methods and solutions adopted to realize the project of the new museum exhibition set-up. The third and last part describes the studies carried out on the materials: from the minerals of the systematic collections to the rock specimens that recount not only the geodiversity of a region but also the history of a city.

Réaumur and the Science of the Arts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Bertucci
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Actual Cost ◽  
True Value ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Académie Des Sciences ◽  
Technical Literacy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mechanical Arts

This chapter looks at the connections between natural history and the mechanical arts in the work of René Réaumur, a prominent member of the Académie des Sciences. It argues that his understanding of natural materials created connections among the natural world, the mechanical arts, and the world of industry and trade. For Réaumur, the history of the arts was strategic to the economic advancement of France because it would stimulate artisans to improve their techniques and promote technical literacy among entrepreneurs who owned manufactures. He conceived of the encyclopedia of the arts as an instrument that would enable the learned public to understand the true value of labor and to appreciate the actual cost of useful items.

Pliny the Elder

Classics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aude Doody
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Pliny The Younger ◽  
Intellectual Inquiry ◽  
Pliny The Elder ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

Gaius Plinius Secundus or Pliny the Elder (b. 23/4–d. 79 ce) is famous for two things: his monumental Natural History (Historia naturalis), which describes the world in thirty-seven volumes, and his death in the eruption of Vesuvius, which was carefully described by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, in one of two letters about his uncle that have survived to us (Plin. Ep. 6.16). In the second of these letters, Pliny the Elder is described as a man who read insatiably and the author of a large number of lost works, including histories of the German Wars and of the later Julio-Claudian period, as well as a treatise on how to throw a javelin from a horse (Plin. Ep. 3.5). Born in Novum Comum in the Transpadane regions, Pliny the Elder served in Germany alongside the future emperor Titus, practiced law at Rome under Nero, and went on to a prominent career as an equestrian administrator under the Flavians, holding a series of important procuratorships, including that of Hispania Tarraconensis, and serving as commander of the fleet at Misenum. The Natural History is dedicated to Titus, and Pliny’s closeness to both Vespasian and Titus seems reflected in his political views in the work, most obviously in his animosity toward Nero and his court. The Natural History is a key document in the history of science and scholarship in Europe. In this encyclopedic text, Pliny gathers together and arranges data from his reading and from his experience to present an account of nature that has Roman concerns at its heart. Pliny is not particularly concerned with philosophical schools, though he is usually seen as influenced by Stoicism. Nature is knowable through a succession of itemized facts that he puts at the disposal of his readers, to encourage them to marvel at the wonderful and unexpected inventiveness of the natural world. The burden of his text can be seen as a moral or a political one: Pliny promotes a return to old Roman values and a renewed spirit of intellectual inquiry in the rhetorical passages of the text, and the work as a whole is dependent on, and produced in the service of, Roman imperial interests. The work is organized in thirty-seven volumes. The first contains the preface and—unusually—a list of the contents and sources for each of the ensuing volumes. The following thirty-six deal with the heavens (Book 2); geography (Books 3–6); humans and other living creatures (Books 7–11); plants (Books 12–19); medicines from plants (Books 20–27); medicines from living creatures (Books 28–32); and an account of metals, minerals, and gemstones and the art that has been produced from them (Books 33–37).

scholarly journals The Universe in the Universe: German Idealism and the Natural History of Mind

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 297-316
Author(s):  
Iain Hamilton Grant
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Transcendental Idealism ◽  
Philosophy Of Nature ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Partial Content ◽  
The Universe

AbstractRecent considerations of mind and world react against philosophical naturalisation strategies by maintaining that the thought of the world is normatively driven to reject reductive or bald naturalism. This paper argues that we may reject bald or ‘thoughtless’ naturalism without sacrificing nature to normativity and so retreating from metaphysics to transcendental idealism. The resources for this move can be found in theNaturphilosophieoutlined by the German Idealist philosopher F.W.J. Schelling. He argues that because thought occurs in the same universe as thought thinks, it remains part of that universe whose elements in consequence now additionally include that thought. A philosophy of nature beginning from such a position neither shaves thought from a thoughtless nature nor transcendentally reduces nature to the content of thought, since a thought occurring in nature only has ‘all nature’ as its content when that thought is additive rather than summative. A natural history of mind drawn from Schellingian premises therefore entails that, while a thought may have ‘all nature’ as its content, this thought is itself the partial content of the nature augmented by it.

scholarly journals Plato on Natural Kinds: The Promethean Method of the Philebus

Apeiron ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Proios
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Kind ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Natural World ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Abstract Plato’s invention of the metaphor of carving the world by the joints (Phaedrus 265d–66c) gives him a privileged place in the history of natural kind theory in philosophy and science; he is often understood to present a paradigmatic but antiquated view of natural kinds as possessing eternal, immutable, necessary essences. Yet, I highlight that, as a point of distinction from contemporary views about natural kinds, Plato subscribes to an intelligent-design, teleological framework, in which the natural world is the product of craft and, as a result, is structured such that it is good for it to be that way. In Plato’s Philebus, the character Socrates introduces a method of inquiry whose articulation of natural kinds enables it to confer expert knowledge, such as literacy. My paper contributes to an understanding of Plato’s view of natural kinds by interpreting this method in light of Plato’s teleological conception of nature. I argue that a human inquirer who uses the method identifies kinds with relational essences within a system causally related to the production of some unique craft-object, such as writing. As a result, I recast Plato’s place in the history of philosophy, including Plato’s view of the relation between the kinds according to the natural and social sciences. Whereas some are inclined to separate natural from social kinds, Plato holds the unique view that all naturalness is a social feature of kinds reflecting the role of intelligent agency.

The Cambridge History of America and the World

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Power ◽  
American Empire ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Cultural Terms ◽  
The World ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
History Of

The fourth volume of The Cambridge History of America and the World examines the heights of American global power in the mid-twentieth century and how challenges from at home and abroad altered the United States and its role in the world. The second half of the twentieth century marked the pinnacle of American global power in economic, political, and cultural terms, but even as it reached such heights, the United States quickly faced new challenges to its power, originating both domestically and internationally. Highlighting cutting-edge ideas from scholars from all over the world, this volume anatomizes American power as well as the counters and alternatives to 'the American empire.' Topics include US economic and military power, American culture overseas, human rights and humanitarianism, third-world internationalism, immigration, communications technology, and the Anthropocene.

scholarly journals Synet på natur og historie hos Grundtvig og Løgstrup

1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-106
Author(s):  
Hans Henningsen
Keyword(s):  
Sense Perception ◽  
Historical View ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
The World ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Historical Life

The View of Nature and History in Grundtvig and LøgstrupBy Hans HenningsenGrundtvig’s and K.E. Løgstrup’s thoughts move in two different dimensions, but with the same intention of demonstrating that it was not the capacity of man to create culture that first gave significance to the world. But where Grundtvig speaks about history, Løgstrup speaks about »phenomena«, »nature«, and »universe«.While Grundtvig was largely unaffected by Kant, the latter - with his concepts of the selfexistent subject and the idea of the faculty of cognition as productive - became a challenge to Løgstrup. Kant heralds an era whose relationship with the universe is characterized as a »marginal existence«. Our culture became an emancipatory culture which was all to the good, but the era lost its sense of the .pre-cultural. structures in which life is »encased«.The era has also emancipated itself from Grundtvig’s historical view. But a history on the premisses of relativism is no history. Or, in Løgstrup’s words, there is no other history than the history of what is essential in life. Therefore, in reality, Løgstrup’s phenomenological and philosophical endeavours become a defence of history. Grundtvig’s view of nature was determined by his radical prioritization of history. He prefers to view nature as part of the historical life of man, which again determines his use of nature images. In Grundtvig there is no religious interpretation of any experience or perception of nature in spite of the fact that everything in the Creation is to be understood as images of the eternal.In Løgstrup there is no such cautions attitude towards nature. Here nature and sense perception are liberating, but as is the case with Grundtvig, nature is seen as the foundation of man’s life, as immediate experience.Grundtvig’s radical prioritization of history colours his view of art. The Creation itself is the greatest work of art; part of it is the upbringing through which all history must be the object of the individual’s own experience. Among the art forms, poetry ranks highest, with the song above all other forms, while Grundtvig only uses disparaging words about painting and sculpture because these art forms are wordless and preclude changes. Løgstrup, however, attaches much greater importance to sense perception and self-recognition through art.These contrasts may be regarded as what Løgstrup calls uniting opposites; it must be remembered, however, that such disparities cannot be harmonized so as to disappear, but are uniting precisely by virtue of the tension that exists between them. The actual existence of the contrasts does not preclude the possibility that in a wider sense the two views may be contained within the same framework and express a common intention.

scholarly journals NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
Dimítri De Araújo Costa ◽  
Nuno Gomes ◽  
Harold Cantallo ◽  
Carlos Antunes
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
History Museums ◽  
The World ◽  
Object Of Study

Society in general is distant from scientific culture, it is required to bring scientific knowledge closer to the population. In this context, an effective and attractive way for scientific dissemination is the establishment of natural history museums, which are institutions of knowledge, displaying the past. Natural history museums have the natural world as their object of study; and their collections may contain the most diverse types of materials (local and/or from various parts of the world), such as zoological, botanical, geological, archaeological, among others. Scientific collections are the largest and most important source of authoritative biodiversity data, contributing to studies of biodiversity composition, evolutionary (morphological and genetic), biogeographical, phenological, as well as geological. The materials present in these collections may serve for temporal comparison, being useful to produce predictive models. Likewise, they have a fundamental role in safeguarding type specimens, i.e. the first organisms identified to describe and name a new species. In addition, there is the component available to visitors in general, in order to raise public awareness on the preservation of the local fauna and flora and of other places in the world. In this way, the museums serve both the academic-scientific public and visitors who come to these sites for recreational purposes. It is intended to promote, in Vila Nova de Cerveira, the Natural History Museum of the Iberian Peninsula - NatMIP (“Museu de História Natural da Península Ibérica”), which intends to collect materials for scientific purposes, mainly Iberian.

scholarly journals Theophany in the Old Testament and its Interpretation in Aramaic Translations (The Concept of the Divine Word in the Targum)

2007 ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Dmytro V. Tsolin
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Material World ◽  
The World ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of ◽  
Repeated Use ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Experienced Researcher

Every reader of the Old Testament, both experienced researcher and newcomer, cannot fail to pay attention to one peculiarity in the presentation of the idea of ​​God: it is a harmonious (and, at times, amazing) combination of transcendence and immanence. The History of the Creation of the World (Genesis 1: 1 - 2: 3), which begins the first book of the Strictly Testament - Genesis - is an example of an exquisite prose genre with elements of epic poetry. In it, the Creator of the Universe appears to the Almighty, the Wise, and the All-Powerful, standing above the created world: Only one word of it evokes the material world from nothingness. This is emphasized by the repeated use of the formulas אלהים וימר / wa-yyo'mer 'ělohîm ("And Elohim said ...") and ויהי־כן / wa-yəhî khēn ("And so it became"). This use of two narrative constructs at the beginning and at the end of messages about the creative activities of God clearly emphasizes the idea of ​​reconciling the divine Word and being. God is shown here to be transcendental.

GHAZALI'S PHILOSOPHY OF REALITY, IMPORTANCE AND PURPOSE OF RELIGION

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Rasheed
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Universe

"The history of religion is as old as the world itself. That is why from Hazrat Adam to date, we find no age without divine guidance.Guidance is necessary for all human beings as the Creator of the universe, Almighty Allah addressed the first human couple while sending it to this earth:"We said," Get down from here, all of you. So, whenever 'the guidance' from ME comes to you; and whoever follows MY' guidance', they do not have to fear and they do not have to regret".Meaning: "Gm here; ate you down all frond if, as is sure, there comes to you guidance from Me, whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve". It means the success of Allah's vicegerents, human beings, depends on their following the laws given by the creator of this world.

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