RESUMEN
Michelet combined various models of morphology to build his own model of history and nature. In this model, Michelet used the concept of organic type in multiple senses and timelines, creating the dream of a predetermined, ideal future of France, while at the same time emphasizing the significance and necessity of the people's will to bring that future into reality. In blending natural scientific models and national history, Michelet did not aim to subsume history under science, but to create a new, powerful national faith with the aid of scientific tools.
Asunto(s)
Historia Natural , Francia , Historia Natural/historiaRESUMEN
What role does nationality-or the image of a nation-play in how one thinks and receives scientific ideas? This paper investigates the commonly held ideas about "German science" and "French science" in early nineteenth-century France. During the politically turbulent time, the seemingly independent scientific community found itself in a difficult position: first, between the cosmopolitan ideals of scientific community and the invasive political reality, and second, between the popularized image of national differences and the actual comparisons of international scientific ideas. The tension between multiple sets of fictions and realities underscores the fragility of the concept of nationality as a scientific measure. A case study comparing morphological ideas, receptions in France, and the actual scientific texts of J. W. von Goethe and A. P. de Candolle further illustrates this fragility. Goethe and Candolle make an ideal comparative case because they were received in very different lights despite their similar concept of the plant type. Our sentence-classification and visualization methods are applied to their scientific texts, to compare the actual compositions and forms of the texts that purportedly represented German and French sciences. This paper concludes that there was a gap between what French readers assumed they read and what they really read, when it came to foreign scientific texts. The differences between Goethe's and Candolle's texts transcended the perceived national differences between German Romanticism and French Classicism.