Intro to Humboldt... you know, that German name you might be vaguely aware of.
- thecatandtheleaf
- Apr 10, 2017
- 3 min read
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a German explorer naturalist who inspired multiple renown artists and scientists both during his lifetime through his character and deeds, and after he passed through his time-tested works and worldview. Why have you not heard of him? I had not until I started noticing Andrea Wulf’s The Invention of Nature popping up in bookstores last year.
I was drawn to the interesting cover design, with the embossed title I could feel under my fingertips and the featured animals that promised exotic locals. Reading the back cover, I was intrigued by the proposed prevalence of Humboldt’s ideas in life sciences today. And indeed, from the table of contents I could see that Humboldt had supposedly met important scientists I had studied before, such as Darwin and Haeckel, or at least had heard about, like Thoreau and Muir.
So who was this guy, and what could someone like me learn from his story? My curiosity was piqued enough, so I requested The Invention of Nature from Santa this past Christmas and also got my college pen-pal a copy as part of my present to her. The proposal was to do a sort of long-distance reading group, where we would read the book at about the same time and email our thoughts on each chapter back and forth. I think it went pretty well; so much so that I really got into my responses. Knowing that I would have to share my thoughts with someone else improved my note-taking process and lead to a greater retention of the chapter content. As such, I was significantly inspired to start this here blog. Thank you, Humboldt (and Wulf)!
Full disclosure: my Invention of Nature related posts will not be summaries of the book itself and are not meant to be read thusly. Instead, I highlight key aspects of Humboldt’s tae to discuss my perspective on his theories or other topics these passages might have reminded me of. For organization’s sake, we will move chronologically through the book, but these posts by no means need to be read in chronological order. In all, I hope you are inspired by Humboldt’s character as much as I have been.
* * * *
Author's Note & Prologue
I enjoyed the Author's Note mentioning of the different translations of his works, explaining the complexity of this issue for the layman but also informing experts in this field which versions will be referenced. While the text does not seem like it will be littered with footnotes or numbered references, it still seems like a work that would be applicable to academics as well as amateurs. I also think translation study is truly fascinating; I took a course on Beowulf in my Senior Year of undergraduate study at the University of Notre Dame that was really interesting.
As a side note, I wonder how other investigators would have interpreted the same primary source material? As mentioned in the Prologue, I am glad Wulf went to the lengths of visiting some of the sights that Humboldt went to and stayed in, like the German research center and the hut, as well as physically handling his notes & published works instead of just analyzing electronic copies. This methodology when I read Shakespeare's First Folio by Emma Smith; I think discussing the physical history of key points in literature can be thought-provoking and insightful.
When Wulf describes her project as an investigation to rediscover Humboldt for herself, thereby setting the journey up as a sort of adventure in its own right, it familiarizes us with her voice and prepares us to see these events and persons through a human perspective. It humanizes the story by humanizing the narrator guiding us through this time period.
I like the fact that Humboldt was in conversation with and influenced a number of still renown characters (Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, etc.). However, after listening to Audible audiobooks for Alexander Hamilton and Washington: A Life, both by Ron Chernow, I find myself a little biased against Jefferson (who thought Hamilton was a loyalist trying to break up the nation with his bank plan, and who was blind in his support of the French Revolution even after it got really violent), but we shall see if Humboldt will be able to change some of my mind. I have a sense that the prime of Jefferson's intellectual and enlightened career was when he was traveling through Europe, which is where I expect he would have met Humboldt.
Now that we have been introduced to this odd, but seemingly important, individual, we can proceed further into his biography, The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf, in order to determine for ourselves how important he actually is to our current understanding of the natural world. . .
Comments