| |
Michael Hagner
(ETH, Zürich)
Abstract
In this paper I will juxtapose three different intellectual approaches found around 1800: (i) debates concerning monstrosity, (ii) theories of cerebral asymmetry, and (iii) the positions of the German idealist philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. The underlying argument for this unusual arrangement is that the understanding of the organism in the life sciences underwent a fundamental shift in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Whereas before that period, symmmetry
in the formation of the body was regarded as a crucial factor in the
proper order of nature, and asymmetry was regarded as pathological,
after 1800, however, asymmetry at least in some bodily systems was
regarded as a normal phenomenon that could be explained in terms of
organic development. Teratology and brain anatomy are two fields in
which this shift becomes obvious; Hegel, on his part, developed very
similar ideas regarding balance and imbalance, in his theory of the
development of the human mind.
Bio
Michael Hagner
holds a Chair in Science Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, Zürich. He is the author of Homo cerebralis. Der Wandel
vom Seelenorgan zum Gehirn (Frankfurt: Insel, 2000) and Geniale
Gehirne. Zur Geschichte der Elitegehirnforschung (Göttingen:
Wallstein, 2004), among other books, and has edited collections such as
Der falsche Körper.
Beiträge zu einer
Geschichte der Monstrositäten
(Göttingen: Wallstein, 1995), Ansichten der Wissenschaftsgeschichte
(Frankfurt: Fischer, 2001), and most recently Einstein on the Beach.
Der Physiker als Phänomen (Frankfurt: Fischer, 2005)
<personal webpage> |
|