Explorer, scientist, writer, and humanist, Alexander von Humboldt was the most famous intellectual of the age that began with Napoleon and ended with Darwin. With Cosmos, the book that crowned his ...career, Humboldt offered to the world his vision of humans and nature as integrated halves of a single whole. In it, Humboldt espoused the idea that, while the universe of nature exists apart from human purpose, its beauty and order, the very idea of the whole it composes, are human achievements: cosmos comes into being in the dance of world and mind, subject and object, science and poetry. Humboldt’s science laid the foundations for ecology and inspired the theories of his most important scientific disciple, Charles Darwin. In the United States, his ideas shaped the work of Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, and Whitman. They helped spark the American environmental movement through followers like John Muir and George Perkins Marsh. And they even bolstered efforts to free the slaves and honor the rights of Indians. Laura Dassow Walls here traces Humboldt’s ideas for Cosmos to his 1799 journey to the Americas, where he first experienced the diversity of nature and of the world’s peoples—and envisioned a new cosmopolitanism that would link ideas, disciplines, and nations into a global web of knowledge and cultures. In reclaiming Humboldt’s transcultural and transdisciplinary project, Walls situates America in a lively and contested field of ideas, actions, and interests, and reaches beyond to a new worldview that integrates the natural and social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. To the end of his life, Humboldt called himself “half an American,” but ironically his legacy has largely faded in the United States. The Passage to Cosmos will reintroduce this seminal thinker to a new audience and return America to its rightful place in the story of his life, work, and enduring legacy.
Alexander von Humboldt Quintana-Vallejo, Ricardo; Peach, Niall A; Clason, Christopher R ...
2023
eBook
Alexander von Humboldt: Perceiving the World provides an interdisciplinary exploration into Humboldt’s approach to seeing and describing the many subjects he pursued. Though remembered primarily as ...an environmental thinker, Humboldt’s interests were vast and documented not just in his published works, but also in his extensive correspondence with scientists, artists, poets, and philosophers internationally. Perceiving the World covers Humboldt’s perceptions during intercontinental travels and scientific discoveries, as well as how he visualized nature, geography, environments, and diverse cultures, including Indigenous Peoples.
This collection draws heavily on the English translations of Humboldt’s work housed in the Purdue University Archives, which were collected by John Purdue. The book is divided into three parts: Humboldt’s contributions to science since the nineteenth century; his work on nature, climates, environments, and the cosmos; and his lasting cultural impact, including his imaging techniques, modes of visual presentation, and contributions to the arts. Humboldt’s intricate approach to perception still resonates today, as his nuanced and unique way of seeing the world was just as important as what he wrote.
This paper presents current findings about the historical use of silver and metallic elements as part of the decorative technique from Colombia known as barniz de Pasto. The results are part of ...broader ongoing research. The aim is to interpret and assess the introduction of metal as a significant component in the consolidation of the technique. Our research uses well-established imaging techniques (visible light macrophotography; infrared and ultraviolet photography), cross-sections, and elemental mapping from SEM-EDS. The results are compared and interpreted within a holistic framework suggesting the introduction of silver as part of an innovation of the barniz de Pasto technique, either as whole silver leaf sandwiched between layers of mopa-mopa or as “venturine”, obtained by kneading, and therefore fragmenting, silver leaf within mopa-mopa layers.
La fundacion de la Universidad Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia en 1868 ocurrio casi una decada despues de la publicacion del origen de las especies de Darwin (1859); en la Escuela de ...Ciencias Naturales se dictaron cursos que incluian tematicas de geografia de las plantas, geologia y paleontologia. ?Seguirian estos cursos el paradigma de historia natural heredado de la expedicion botanica del nuevo reino de granada, o se instalarian en la tradicion biologica moderna, interpretando la naturaleza en el trasfondo de las teorias evolutivas que surgieron durante el siglo XIX? Esta investigacion consulto fuentes historicas primarias y secundarias para determinar si entre 1868 y 1875, los cursos mencionados tenian un trasfondo esencialista-catastrofista, o evolucionista de estilo lamarckiano o darwiniano. El analisis permitio concluir que tuvieron como fuentes primarias textos franceses y espanoles, de Decandolle y Orbigny, circunscritos a la escuela francesa principalmente esencialista y catastrofista. Aunque en los cursos se pudieron discutir algunos temas referentes al origen de las especies, lo mas probable es que estas discusiones no se realizaron en un contexto Darwiniano.
La Geografía en el IPGH Pena, Héctor Óscar José
Revista geográfica - Instituto panamericano de geografía e historia,
10/2021
162
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
La Geografía estuvo presente en la gestación del Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia (IPGH), forma parte de su nombre y lo viene acompañando en su importante trayectoria ...institucional.Durante noventa y dos años fue partícipe necesario en el inicial proceso de organización y desarrollo. Su evolución científica respondió a nuevos desafíos y fue adaptando su paradigma junto con las modernas tecnologías, para continuar siendo una herramienta fundamental para cumplir los objetivos de este organismo especializado de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA).Su enfoque transversal y su flexibilidad para el trabajo científico conjunto, le otorgan especial vigencia para actuar ante los grandes problemas que vive América, dentro de un mundo globalizado.
Llegando al punto crucial de la gestación de la obra, Amando Melón dirigió la tesis doctoral de Germán Bleiberg sobre Alejandro de Humboldt y España en 1958, un año antes de que ambos (maestro y ...discípulo) se encaminaran a Berlín para asistir al encuentro internacional organizado por la Gesellschaft für Erdkunde en el palacio de Tegel (donde Alexander von Humboldt y su hermano Wilhelm pasaron buena parte de su infancia). Al término de su detallado estudio, Amando Melón puede con justicia dejarnos una concluyente valoración: «La dirección y gestión de Humboldt en la «Serie Americana» le acredita como primer americanista de los tiempos modernos, como indiscutible maestro en todo lo referido al Nuevo Mundo, lo mismo en su aspecto natural que en los histórico y geográfico» (p. 221). En resumen, la lectura (o relectura) del libro de Amando Melón nos enriquece, el trabajo de Josefina Gómez Mendoza nos proporciona un retrato ponderado de la figura del ilustre geógrafo y un alegato objetivo y documentado sobre la fundamental relación del sabio alemán con las autoridades, los científicos ilustrados y las modernas instituciones de España tanto en la metrópoli como en América.
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