Matter and Life in Coleridge, Schelling, and Other Dynamical Idealists

This book, written by renowned historians of philosophy, literature, and science, provides a distinctively interdisciplinary work on matter and life in early-modern Germany and Britain (16001850). It interrelates key theories of matter and the life sciences from Jakob Böhme, Ralph Cudworth, G. W. Leibniz, Anthony Cooper (Shaftesbury), Immanuel Kant, J. W. Goethe, Novalis, Friedrich Schelling, G. W. F. Hegel, S. T. Coleridge, and Arthur Schopenhauer. Schelling's centrality in the philosophy of nature is highlighted but also Coleridge's role in importing and adapting German philosophical and scientific insights into the domain of British science runs through the book. At the core of this original project is an interrelated and interdependent analysis of Cambridge Platonism, German idealism, and British romanticism. Under the umbrella term of 'dynamical idealists', the editor of the volume refers to investigators of the vital energy of nature who characteristically combined the tradition of early-modern speculative idealism with enquiries into an experiential study of nature involving mysticism, chemistry, and empirical accounts of physical matter. Significantly, several chapters concentrate on the relationships between human will, agency, freedom, and God, shedding light on modern conceptions of subjectivity and selfhood. All of the above makes this book of great value to historians of philosophy, literature, and science.

Assesses early-modern to romantic energy-based theories of matter and developmental theories of life Demonstrates the commitment of philosophical idealists to the existence of matter through different, related theories Shows how the 'dynamical idealists' have more in common with post-Einsteinian theories of physics

Auteur

Peter Cheyne is professor in British literature and culture, Shimane University, Japan, visiting fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and visiting fellow in philosophy, University of Durham. He is the author of Coleridge's Contemplative Philosophy (Oxford UP, 2020), editor of Imperfectionist Aesthetics in Art and Everyday Life (Routledge, 2023) and Coleridge and Contemplation (Oxford UP, 2017) and co-editor of The Philosophy of Rhythm: Aesthetics, Music, Poetics (Oxford UP, 2020).

Contenu

1. Introduction to Dynamical Idealists on Matter and Life (Peter Cheyne).- 2. Jacob Böhme, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Naturphilosophie: 'Wonderfully did this gifted Seer fly before his Age' (Cecilia Muratori and James Vigus).- 3. Coleridge and Leibniz on Force and the Continuum Problem (Charity Ketz).- 4. Plastic Nature from Cudworth to Shaftesbury and German Classical Idealist Philosophy (12,000) (Thomas Wormald).- 5. Novalis's Poetic Understanding of Nature in the Age of Romanticism (Alexander J. B. Hampton).- 6. Mind and Matter in Schelling and Hegel (Tilottama Rajan).- 7. Grasping a Living Nature: Schelling, Goethe and the Roots of Process Philosophy (Philipp Höfele).- 8. Schelling's Principle of Life and the Unity of Mind and Nature (Lara Ostaric).- 9. Living and Dead Forms: The Factuality of Meaning in Schelling and Other Naturalists (Daniel Whistler).- 10. The Evolution of Schelling's and Coleridge's Theories of Matter (Dale E. Snow).- 11. The Ordure of Things: Coleridge'sLiving Ideas and the Indivisible Remainder (Tim Milnes).- 12. The Limits of Analogy in Coleridge's Philosophy of Nature (Lydia Azadpour).- 13. An 'Alphabet of the Philosophy of physical Dynamics': Kant's and Coleridge's Dynamical Theories of the Metaphysical Foundations of Matter (Dillon Struwig).- 14. Coleridge and the Science of Life (Andrew Cooper).- 15. Bloody Speck: Punctum Saliens as Metaphysical Principle in Coleridge's and Other Dynamical Idealists' Theories of Matter (Peter Cheyne).- 16. Matter, Will, and Human Life in Coleridge and Schopenhauer (Allison Dushane).- 17. Life, Nature, and Race: Blumenbach's Vital Materialism in Coleridge's Later Writings (181828) (Kimberley Page-Jones).- 18. 'A human being may be dishumanised': Coleridge and Human Life (Andrea Timár).- 19. Coleridge's on Ideas Actualizing through Matter and Life, and a Suggestion on the 'Hard Problem' of Consciousness (Peter Cheyne).