Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism

Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism
Author: John van Wyhe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351911295
GET BOOK

Through a reassessment of phrenology, Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism sheds light on all kinds of works in Victorian Britain and America which have previously been unnoticed or were simply referred to with a vague 'naturalism of the times' explanation. It is often assumed that the scientific naturalism familiar in late nineteenth century writers such as T.H. Huxley and John Tyndall are the effects of a 'Darwinian revolution' unleashed in 1859 on an unsuspecting world following the publication of The Origin of Species. Yet it can be misleading to view Darwin's work in isolation, without locating it in the context of a well established and vigorous debate concerning scientific naturalism. Throughout the nineteenth century intellectuals and societies had been discussing the relationship between nature and man, and the scientific and religious implications thereof. At the forefront of these debates were the advocates of phrenology, who sought to apply their theories to a wide range of subjects, from medicine and the treatment of the insane, to education, theology and even economic theories. Showing how ideas about naturalism and the doctrine of natural laws were born in the early phrenology controversies in the 1820s, this book charts the spread of such views. It argues that one book in particular, The Constitution of Man in Relation to External Objects (1828) by George Combe, had an enormous influence on scientific thinking and the popularity of the 'naturalistic movement'. The Constitution was one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century, being published continuously from 1828 to 1899, and selling more than 350,000 copies throughout the world, many times more than Dawin's The Origin of Species. By restoring Combe and his work to centre stage it provides modern scholars with a more accurate picture of the Victorians' view of their place in Nature.

The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of Man

The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of Man
Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: SteinerBooks
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2007-05-15
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1621511294
GET BOOK

3 lectures, Dornach, December 17-19, 1920 (CW 202) Rudolf Steiner addresses the following topics in these lectures: Soul-and-Spirit in Man's Physical Constitution: The physical organism of man is considered today to consist of more or less solid-fluid substances; but as well as his solid, physical body, man has within him as definite organisms, a fluid body, an air-body and a warmth-body. -- The connections of these organisms with the members of man's whole being and with the different Ethers. -- Thought and Tone; Ego and circulating Blood. -- Man in the sleeping state. -- Man's relation to the universal Spirituality. -- Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition. -- The circumscribed view of the human organism prevailing today is unable to build any bridge between the physical body and the soul-and-spirit. The Moral as the Source of World-Creative Power: Recapitulation of previous lecture. -- Connection of the moral world-order with the physical world-order. -- The moral world-order has no place in the natural scientific thinking of today. -- The positive effect of moral ideals and ideas and the negative effect of theoretical ideas on the four organisms in man. -- The materialistic conception of the imperishability of matter and energy. -- Matter and energy die away to nullity; but man's moral thinking imbues life into substance and will. -- The natural world dies away in man; in the realm of the moral a new natural world comes into being; thus are the moral order and the natural order connected. -- Absence of spirituality in the modern picture of the world which is based on the Copernican system. -- Kepler and Newton. -- We need a spiritual view of the universe. -- The sun is not a globe of burning gas but the reflection of a spiritual reality revealed in the physical. -- The moral power developed by man rays out and is reflected as the spiritual Sun. -- Julian the Apostate. -- The connection of the spiritual Sun with the physical sun is the Christ-Secret. The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World-Events: Man as a being of Thinking, Action and Feeling. -- The connection of the life of thought with the will. -- Pure thinking: irradiation of the life of thought by will. -- This leads to Freedom. -- Irradiation of the life of will by thoughts leads to Love. -- The meaning of the ancient expressions: Semblance, Power, Wisdom. -- To speak of the imperishability of matter and energy annuls Love. -- The significance of Freedom and Love in world-happenings.