Nomos und physis

  • Alexander von Humboldt’s world view, philosophy of science, and scientific practice were dominated by the notions of measure and harmony. This matter of fact does not leave any doubt about Humboldt’s Pythagoreanism. Already the choice of the title of his Kosmos was led by Pythagorean thought. In 1846 he explicitly wrote to Jacobi that the whole first book is based on the idea that the first Hellenic seeds to all further progresses of mathematical natural knowledge are owed to the Pythagoreans and their emphasis on measure, number, and weight. The paper consists of four parts. The first part deals with Humboldt’s acquaintance with the fragments of the Pythagorean Philolaus. The second part compares the Aristotelean tradition with Philolaus’s informations on Pythagoreanism. The third part relying on the two foregoing parts explains Humboldt’s philosophy of science as a tranformation of Pythagoreanism. The last part discusses three examples taken from Humboldt’s scientific practice in order to illustrate the results deduced up to then.

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Metadaten
Author details:Eberhard KnoblochGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51750
ISSN:2568-3543
ISSN:1617-5239
Title of parent work (German):Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies
Subtitle (German):Alexander von Humboldt und die Tradition antiker Denkweisen und Vorstellungen
Publisher:Universitätsverlag Potsdam
Place of publishing:Potsdam
Publication type:Article
Language:German
Publication year:2010
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Publishing institution:Universitätsverlag Potsdam
Release date:2011/04/12
Tag:Aristoteles; Philolaos aus Kroton; Pythagoreer; Wissenschaftsbeziehungen; Wissenschaftsgeschichte; Wissenschaftspraxis; Wissenschaftstheorie
Volume:XI
Issue:21
Number of pages:11
First page:44
Last Page:54
Source:HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz, XI (2010) 21
RVK - Regensburg classification:GK 4953, NU 5089, WB 3187, RT 10026, RB 10032
Organizational units:Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Romanistik
DDC classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 50 Naturwissenschaften / 509 Histor., geogr., personenbezogene Behandlung
9 Geschichte und Geografie / 91 Geografie, Reisen / 911 Historische Geografie
Collection(s):Universität Potsdam / Zeitschriften / HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; International Review for Humboldtian Studies, ISSN 1617-5239 / HiN XI, 21 (2010)
Peer review:Referiert
Publishing method:Open Access
Universitätsverlag Potsdam
License (German):License LogoCC-BY-NC - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell 4.0 International
External remark:The original publication is available at
https://doi.org/10.18443/144
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