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Dottorato Di Ricerca Titolo Tesi Università degli Studi di Cagliari DOTTORATO DI RICERCA Discipline Filosofiche Ciclo XXVI TITOLO TESI L’economia della natura e il respiro del mondo. La filosofia della natura di Swedenborg tra Herder e Schelling (1770-1810) Settore/i scientifico disciplinari di afferenza M-FIL/06 Presentata da: Laura Follesa Coordinatore Dottorato Prof.ssa Annamaria Loche Tutor/Relatore Prof.ssa Francesca Maria Crasta (Cagliari) Tutor/Relatore Prof. Dr. Dr. Olaf Breidbach (Jena) Esame finale anno accademico 2012 – 2013 La presente tesi è stata prodotta durante la frequenza del corso di dottorato in Discipline Filosofiche dell’Università degli Studi di Cagliari, a.a. 2012/2013 – XXVI ciclo, con il supporto di una borsa di studio finanziata con le risorse del P.O.R. SARDEGNA F.S.E. 2007-2013 - Obiettivo competitività regionale e occupazione, Asse IV Capitale umano, Linea di Attività l.3.1 “Finanziamento di corsi di dottorato finalizzati alla formazione di capitale umano altamente specializzato, in particolare per i settori dell’ICT, delle nanotecnologie e delle biotecnologie, dell'energia e dello sviluppo sostenibile, dell'agroalimentare e dei materiali tradizionali”. Indice Introduzione ...................................................................................................................... 3 Filosofia e scienza tra il 1770 e il 1810 ........................................................................................ 3 Armonia e metamorfosi ................................................................................................................. 5 Alchimia, chimica e continuità della natura ................................................................................. 9 Il typus e gli studi di embriogenesi ............................................................................................. 12 Il rapporto Infinito-finito e l’eredità spinoziana ......................................................................... 14 Cosmogonie, punti e contrazioni ................................................................................................ 16 La filosofia della natura di Swedenborg ..................................................................................... 19 Swedenborg e i suoi interpreti .................................................................................................... 22 Capitolo 1 Emanuel Swedenborg e la filosofia della natura ..................................... 32 Swedenborg tra filosofia della natura e scienze della vita ......................................................... 32 Opera philosophica et mineraria: dal mondo sotterraneo alla genesi dell’universo .................. 36 L’Oeconomia regni animalis ....................................................................................................... 39 Capitolo 2 La ricezione di Swedenborg in Germania ................................................ 46 Swedenborg e i suoi recensori: dal Daedalus Hyperboreus al Regnum animale ........................ 46 Visioni, sogni, corpi sottili .......................................................................................................... 57 Affinità e corrispondenze: Goethe, Herder, Lavater lettori di Swedenborg ................................ 71 Natura, vita, libertà: Oetinger e Schelling ................................................................................. 75 Capitolo 3 Swedenborg, Schelling e la ‘scienza della natura’ ................................... 82 Il «massimo problema di ogni scienza»: l’Infinito nel finito ...................................................... 82 La mediazione tra Infinito e finito: il concetto di punto metafisico ............................................ 86 La dottrina delle serie e dei gradi ............................................................................................... 89 La contrazione originaria ........................................................................................................... 93 La critica all’atomismo ............................................................................................................. 102 Magnetismo e origine dell’universo ......................................................................................... 106 Spirali e polarità magnetica ..................................................................................................... 109 La dottrina schellinghiana delle potenze .................................................................................. 113 Il grande uovo del mondo ......................................................................................................... 117 L’organismo universale, l’anima del mondo e il respiro della natura ...................................... 119 Capitolo 4 Armonia e metamorfosi ........................................................................... 125 Il typus, la varietà, l’armonia ................................................................................................... 125 Economia della natura .............................................................................................................. 135 L’interno e l’esterno, il grande e il piccolo: fisiognomica e ‘ricapitolazione’ delle forme naturali ..................................................................................................................................... 146 Creazione e formazione, trasformazione, metamorfosi ed evoluzione ...................................... 151 Capitolo 5 L’organismo .............................................................................................. 160 Natura ‘morta’ e organismi viventi ........................................................................................... 160 Il ‘regno’ dell’anima ................................................................................................................. 166 La polemica di Leibniz contro le ‘nature plastiche’ di Cudworth e Stahl ................................. 171 I concetti di archeus e di spiritus animalis nella fisiologia di Swedenborg ............................... 175 La scienza del sangue ............................................................................................................... 178 L’origine degli organismi viventi .............................................................................................. 182 Epigenesi, preesistenza, preformismo ....................................................................................... 186 Il ‘fluido spirituoso’, il cervello, i nervi .................................................................................... 189 Appendici ....................................................................................................................... 207 Zusammenfassung ..................................................................................................................... 209 Recensioni ai testi di Swedenborg in periodici svedesi, tedeschi, olandesi .............................. 249 Selezione della corrispondenza di Swedenborg (1763-1810) ................................................... 252 Selezione delle opere presenti nella biblioteca di Swedenborg ................................................. 254 Swedenborg e Oetinger nel catalogo della biblioteca privata di Schelling .............................. 258 Bibliografia .................................................................................................................... 261 Abbreviazioni ............................................................................................................................ 261 Cataloghi d’asta, inventari, regesti di biblioteche .................................................................... 262 Fonti .......................................................................................................................................... 263 Periodici .................................................................................................................................... 292 Studi .......................................................................................................................................... 293 Introduzione Filosofia e scienza tra il 1770 e il 1810 La riflessione sull’unità della natura e sul vivente costituisce uno dei punti focali che, nella Germania del secondo Settecento, caratterizza la Naturphilosophie e la scienza romantica. Nuovi concetti e nuclei tematici, che ruotano attorno a un’idea di natura intesa come un tutto armonico, ma nel contempo dominata da un dinamismo di forze interne e contrastanti, acquistano un ruolo centrale a partire dagli anni Settanta del Settecento. Nel corso del dialogo, sempre più serrato, con le più recenti teorie scientifiche, vengono poste le basi di esiti inquadrabili – nei decenni successivi – in ambiti a volte ben diversi da quello ‘strettamente’ scientifico. A fornire spunti e interrogativi ai filosofi sono, nella seconda metà del Settecento, in primo luogo le ricerche sui fenomeni elettrici e sul magnetismo condotte da Benjamin Franklin, Charles Augustin de Coulomb, Luigi Galvani, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Alessandro Volta e le scoperte sul comportamento dei gas e i processi chimici di Henry Cavendish, Joseph Priestley, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. A queste si aggiungono le osservazioni astronomiche di Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel e le indagini geologiche e mineralogiche di Abraham Gottlob Werner o di Johann Karl Wilhelm Voigt, gli studi sull’origine della vita, la classificazione delle specie
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