著者

石倉 和佳

出版者

兵庫県立大学

雑誌

兵庫県立大学環境人間学部研究報告 (ISSN:13498592)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, pp.145-154, 2007-02-28

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The aim of this paper is to make clear the characteristics of the culture of science during the Romantic period in England. First, the paper examines the widely accepted idea of 'the two cultures' and Kuhn's 'paradigm' regarding the complexity of the scientific climate in the Romantic age. Next, it deals with Humphry Davy's research in chemistry and Coleridge's relevant scientific speculation. Considering the fact that the phlogiston hypothesis was accepted in the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, it is made evident that the Romantic age was a time when certain paradigms were being changed into different ones, particularly in the field of chemistry. Davy's hypothetical proposition regarding "some unknown bases" of matter, derived from his experiment conducted by electrolysis, highlights a worldview in which power in matter is fundamental to the understanding of the universe. Stimulated by Davy's research, Coleridge speculated on the relevance of modern chemistry to the writings of Jacob Bohme, a German mystic. Some of these scientific speculations could have been developed into another scientific school of thought, while others appeared to remain inappropriate to the standards of the paradigm. Nevertheless, it is possible to think that in the age of Romanticism the pursuit of science could involve everything concerned with human knowledge and life, and the testing of various ideas to reveal the potentiality of forming another frame of thought.