Humphry Davy: A case study in science and Romanticism.

摘要

British science in the early 19th century was dominated by factors such as natural theology, emphasis on utility, Baconian epistemology, and dualistic matter theory, all which rendered it inhospitable to or even prohibitory of key Romantic ideas and practices. This is why the science of English chemist Humphry Davy (1778--1829) was largely devoid of the organicism and experiential methodologies which typified much of German Romantic science. Nonetheless, Davy's science was driven by broad Romantic impulses, specifically, an impulse towards grasping at what is most fundamental and universal in nature and an impulse towards exerting and exulting the self. Time and again, Davy forged his own vision of the workings of nature or of the role of the self in science which embodied his Romantic aspirations while remaining, for the most part, within British scientific orthodoxy.;Like other Romantic thinkers, Davy reacted against the predominant Enlightenment science, specifically the chemistry of Lavoisier, finding it artificial and unwieldy. With his chemistry of active powers Davy was seeking to restore the simple unity of nature and apprehend nature's most fundamental forces and matter. But this is only half of the story in considering Davy as a Romantic thinker. Active powers included for Davy not only the affinity between chemical substances or the electricity generated from a battery but also the vital soul and the inborn powers of self. This broad conception of active powers was the true impetus driving Davy's chemistry---originally, through direct attempts to experimentally reveal chemical bases of life and thought and later, through a vision of science as Romantic quest in which the inquiring mind ushers in its own intellectual and spiritual progression. Davy's famous electrochemical researches were both an ambitious attempt to apprehend the fundamental active powers inundating nature and an expression of the questing genius.