THE AGE OF WONDER: HOW THE ROMANTIC GENERATION DISCOVERED THE BEAUTY AND TERROR OF SCIENCE

摘要

In the last issue of this journal, I reviewed The Metaphysical Club, which described the rise of pragmatism. This book addresses the other extreme of scientific philosophy. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Britain, the scientific leaders were romantics in their outlook and they attracted literary romantics. The principal protagonists are Joseph Banks, William Hershel, and Humphrey Davy.