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The Legitimation of Science in the Early German Enlightenment Leipzig, Ca

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The Legitimation of Science in the Early German Enlightenment Leipzig, Ca The Legitimation of Science in the Early German Enlightenment Leipzig, ca. 1687-1750 by Moira R. Rogers Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Science and Technology Studies APPROVED: Ann F. La Berge Marjorie G. Grene Ellsworth R. Fuhrman Peter Barker Barbara~. Reeves May 1997 Blacksburg, Virginia The Legitimation of Science in the Early German Enlightenment: Leipzig ca. 1687-1750 ABSTRACT The legitimation of science as the most authoritative form of human knowledge is the result of complex literary and socio-political processes. In the course of the eighteenth century, lay people came to see science as an authority beyond criticism, whose norms are value-neutral, self-evident and absolute. The cultural status that science acqoired·rontinued for centuries and, even though it has been challenged in our times, it still is one of the main providers of meaning for social life. It is true that contemporary scholarship has taken important steps to deconstruct such views by pointing out the social and political roots of the modem ideal of certainty and decontextualization. However, questions still remain as to how this popular image of science was established to begin with. A common view, suggested by the traditional emphasis on scientific practitioners and intellectuals, is that scientific ideas diffused to lay publics and informed them of the newly discovered truths. People then responded to the challenge by adjusting their lives according to the logical implications of science. However, more careful analysis of the sources indicates that the appropriation of science by these audiences occurred in a much more complex and interesting way. A very common opinion at that early time was that "It is from Saxony that the light of science has spread through Germany and other countries." Leipzig was described as "the cradle of all arts and sciences," "the biggest journal-factory," "the Mecca of the European book- /overs," "the German Athens" (Diderot). This study explores the various forces that converged in the excitement and satisfaction of a public taste for and curiosity about scientific matters. Although it is bound to the Saxon area with special emphasis on Leipzig as a major center of Enlightenment, the results of this study are of more general significance for Mid- and Northern Germany. It provides an illustration of the ways in which supra-regional and international networks centering in the Saxon area operated. Local developments, even when strictly bound to local conditions, signaled the general directions of the Enlightenment movement in Germany as a whole. The processes that allowed science to transcend the boundaries of academies and universities were not merely "transmission" of ideas to essentially passive and receptive audiences. Complex dynamics contributed to the promotion of broader Enlightenment interests in German culture. In spite of universalist claims, philosophers and popularizers did not grant women, as the emblem of the uneducated, nor the people in general, access to the sanctuary of science. Rather, the popularization of science functioned as an effective means for preaching the Enlightenment gospel to an educated laity. It emerges from this study not as a way of reaching out to other underprivileged social groups, but as an effective means for producing unity between elite groups in German society. Popular science works are fragments in the composition of a new human and social ideal, in which science plays a crucial part. They are key building blocks in the construction of a learned worldview shaped by Enlightenment ideals, tensions, and contradictions. Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Figures Preface Introduction Historiographic Essay 1. Cultural Studies of Science 2. "Popularization" of Science 3. Enlightenment Studies a. History of German Science b. "Woman" as the Uneducated 4. "Science and Literature" Studies Part I: Making Knowledge Public Chapter 1 Setting the Stage: The Early German Enlightenment 1. In the Aftermath of War 2. The Enlightenment: an Urban Movement 3. Leipzig: Fair, University, Publishing Industry 4. Women and "the People". 5. Conclusion Chapter 2 Making Knowledge Public 1. Critiques of Old Learning 2. Christian Thomasius a. True Learning b. True Gallantry c. Philosophy as "Worldly-Wisdom" 3. "Learned Woman is a Problem" 4. "Science" for the Uneducated 5. Conclusion Chapter 3 The Birth of the Lexicons: Amaranthes' Curious,Gallant, and Useful Ladies' Lexicon (1715, 1739, 1773) 1. Introduction 2. Amaranthes' Ladies Lexicon, 1715, 1739 a. The Publishers and the Sign of the Times b. The Intended Audience c. "Learned Woman is a Problem" 3. Conclusion iv Part II: The Public Culture of Science Chapter4 Didactic Poetry 1. Introduction 2. Newton Demands the German Muse 3. Didactic Poetry: New Medium, New Tasks 4. Readers: Children, Mediocre Heads, Rough Rabble: Unflattering Consequences of the Enlightened Message? 5. Conclusion Chapter 5 Dialogue Writing 1. Introduction 2. German and European Traditions of Dialogue Writing a. Gottsched's Discourse on Dialogues (1727) b. Theological and Literary Antecedents 3. Algarotti's Newtonianismfor the La.dies a. Circumstances leading to the German translation b. Algarotti's preface c. A Newtonian lesson? 4. Conclusion Chapter6 Public Displays of Science 1. Public Lectures for Lay Audiences 2. The Life and Times of-Electricity in Leipzig, 1740-1750: Trivial Entertainment or Serious Study? 3. Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While I did the research and writing of this dissertation I had fruitful discussions with many fellow students and faculty at the Center for the Study of Science in Society that helped me sharpen my ideas or consider alternatives I had· not thought of. I am especially thankful to Professor Ann La.Berge for her challenges and encouragement that helped improve my work significantly and for reminding me that there is life outside the archives during my research trips abroad. Professor Marjorie Grene generously invested many hours of her expertise and wit to make my German texts readable in English. I could not have completed this work without her help. Stimulating discussions with Professor Ellsworth Fuhrman on theoretical issues helped me to work across disciplinary boundaries. I have benefited immensely from discussions with Dr. Martin Gierl at the Max Planck lnstitut fiir Geschichte, Gottingen, and thank him for helpful comments on an earlier version of this study. I also wish to thank the staff at the Herzog August Bibilothek Wolfenbtittel and the Institut fiir Europaische Geschichte, Mainz for providing me their generous support and a fruitful academic atmosphere that significantly eased my way through eighteenth-century materials. Many thanks to the Interlibrary Loan staff at Virginia Tech for their competence and tolreance. I am also very grateful for the wonderful hospitality of our friends in Reichelsheim, Germany, and to and for their unconditional friendship and support back in Virginia. I also wish to thank my husband and colleague and my son for their patient support in spite of the pressures and limitations on family life that are inevitable when both parents are doctoral vi students at the same time. The research for this dissertation was made possible by a grant from the Women's Research Institute, Virginia Tech, a doctoral dissertation grant from the National Science Foundation, a. grant-in-aid of research from Sigma Xi, a fellowship from the Giinther Findel Stiftung, and a fellowship from the Institut ftir Europaische Geschichte, Mainz. vii LIST OF FIGURES 1. Gottsched, Johann Christoph ( 1700-1766) and Luise Adelgunde Victoria ( 1703-1762) 2. The Holy Roman Empire 3. Leipzig, F. B. Werner, ca. 1750 4. A Reading Woman 5. The People at a Fair Booth 6. Frontispiece of Amaranthes' Ladies Lexicon, 1739 7. Electrostatic Experiment 8. Christian Wolff · 9. Electrical Machine 10. The Electrical Kiss 11. Beatification 12. The Electrical Child 13. Electrification for One Schilling 14. Electrotherapy 15. Medicine without Remedy 16. The Physicotheological Church of the Future Vlll PREFACE I located most of the published materials discussed in this study at the Gottingen University Library and the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbiittel, which is an oasis for anyone doing research on the eighteenth-century or earlier periods. I could not have completed this project without the professional help and friendliness of their staff, especially Mr. Christian Hogrefe, who not only seems to know the card-catalogues by heart but also always finds solutions to any bibliographical problem. The library of the Universities of Leipzig and Halle, and the Sachsische Landesbibliothek also proved very resourceful. The manuscript section of the Leipzig University library has the unpublished correspondence of Johann Christoph Gottsched and his wife Luise Adelgunde, which 1 contains a wealth of materials relevant to the topic. I also used the correspondence of Count Ernst von Manteuffel extant at the Sachsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden. Anyone who has done research in Germany is painfully aware of the immense bureaucratic obstacles which are only now being eased somewhat. These obstacles not only have to do with restricted hours but also with manuscript card-catalogues that must be reproduced two or three times on order forms. In the past few years, there has been an immense automation
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