Excellent article, Monika. I’ve come across Humboldt’s name for years, but it wasn’t until I read a lengthy piece in the NYRB that I understood his true importance in the history of science. “To him, science was not simply about collecting data; it was about understanding and experiencing, about an almost poetic immersion in nature’s secrets.” Yes. I recently picked up a biography on another mostly forgotten but once enormously influential German naturalist, Ernst Haekel. We need more naturalists, unlike specialists “who know more and more about less and less”!
I am so pleased that you found it an interesting piece. Humboldt is not well known in North America and in some circles he probably is still regarded as quite revolutionary. Thanks for signing up!
Thank you very much Monika for your extensive and well researched article" Inventing Nature" with your biography of Alexander von Humboldt, references to relevant authors and Charlene Spretnack's Lecture. I remember him as the last "Universalgenie" growing up in Germany.
Thanks for your comments, Geoff. Yes, please, can we make more people like this instead of the narrow specialists running the world just now...
Excellent article, Monika. I’ve come across Humboldt’s name for years, but it wasn’t until I read a lengthy piece in the NYRB that I understood his true importance in the history of science. “To him, science was not simply about collecting data; it was about understanding and experiencing, about an almost poetic immersion in nature’s secrets.” Yes. I recently picked up a biography on another mostly forgotten but once enormously influential German naturalist, Ernst Haekel. We need more naturalists, unlike specialists “who know more and more about less and less”!
I am so pleased that you found it an interesting piece. Humboldt is not well known in North America and in some circles he probably is still regarded as quite revolutionary. Thanks for signing up!
Thank you very much Monika for your extensive and well researched article" Inventing Nature" with your biography of Alexander von Humboldt, references to relevant authors and Charlene Spretnack's Lecture. I remember him as the last "Universalgenie" growing up in Germany.
Thank you, Monika, for your enlightened commentary and introducing us to von Humboldt.