Nature and Culture in the Nineteenth Century

In the decades around 1800, there was a broad alliance of natural and cultural sciences. By late in the century they were generally seen in opposition, yet the "man of science" remained often a Kulturtraeger (not only in Germany). The problem of reconfiguring culture and the self in an age of science seemed all the more pressing. We will explore these themes through a reading of such literate scientific authors as the Humboldts, Goethe, Helmholtz, T.H. Huxley, Maxwell, Mach, Pearson, Boas, and Freud.