Romantic Empiricism

"A sea change is taking place in the understanding of German Romantic science, and Nassar's study adds significantly to that impulse. She traces the line that originates in Herder's controversial relation with Kant and flows into Goethe and Alexander von Humboldt, giving it a provocative name: Romantic empiricism. Moreover, she highlights the contemporary importance of this line for new ideas in environmentalism and the practice of natural science. All of this I find both cogent and propitious." -- John Zammito, Rice University "Erudite, eloquent, and cogently argued, Dalia Nassar's brilliant new book challenges many engrained assumptions about European romanticism to make a compelling case for both the historical novelty of the romantic empiricism that she identifies in the work of Kant, Herder, Goethe and Humboldt, and of its continuing relevance to current discussions of epistemology and ontology, aesthetics and ethics, corporeality and cognition, affect and judgement, above all with respect to ecological thinking and the urgent global challenges to which it is called to respond. Romantic Empiricism is no less original and important than the new ways of knowing, valuing and engaging with the natural world that Nassar reconstructs within German romanticism. Whatever you think you know about the Romantic period and its historical legacies, this book is bound to make you think again." -- Kate Rigby, Bath Spa University and Monash University "Romantic Empiricism offers a new methodology of knowing nature, pairing the observation of phenomena with distinctive cognitive aspects intrinsic to aesthetic processes. This method is also implicated in the text's narrative style that allows readers to follow along in otherwise dense philosophical discussions." -- Meryem Deniz, The Monatshefte "Thorough and carefully reasoned, Romantic Empiricism is perhaps one-and-a-half books in one-philosophy of science and history thereof-shifting from re-litigationof Kant and Herder to lively readings of Goethe's poetry and Humboldt's prose. If laborious at times, Nassar's comprehensive approach has yielded a solid referencefor anyone interested in the history of environmental thought and its import for our crisis-addled moment." -- Ambika S. Athreya, German Studies Review "No Good Quote" -- Solveig Nitzke, Yesterday