Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology
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Reinhold Münster
Abstract
This article examines the emergence of a new concept of nature since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that was conditioned by major events such as the European discovery of America, the renewed reception of classical-antique notions of the cosmos, and of some Christian theories relevant to this topic. Subsequently, this study will introduce the contemporary mechanistic worldview and the idea of human existence as it was developed primarily by René Descartes, contrasting it with a more discriminating understanding of human existence as promoted by early modern thinkers and their concepts of the surrounding nature. In particular, the focus will rest on the discourse concerning the known planets from Galilei to Kant. Since no one could visit the planets, literary fiction, often based on dreams, assumed a central function in projecting notions of natural environments in outer space. Finally, this article will conclude with a discussion of texts by poets and natural scientists who were inclined to present nature (geography and biosphere) as projected onto the inhabitants of other planets. Granted, in the early modern age, most scientists were driven by a mechanistic and physical framework. However, poets and some natural scientists relativized that perspective and offered a remarkable counter-position that later was to undermine the subsequent ethos of disenchantment Max Weber had famously discussed.
Abstract
This article examines the emergence of a new concept of nature since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that was conditioned by major events such as the European discovery of America, the renewed reception of classical-antique notions of the cosmos, and of some Christian theories relevant to this topic. Subsequently, this study will introduce the contemporary mechanistic worldview and the idea of human existence as it was developed primarily by René Descartes, contrasting it with a more discriminating understanding of human existence as promoted by early modern thinkers and their concepts of the surrounding nature. In particular, the focus will rest on the discourse concerning the known planets from Galilei to Kant. Since no one could visit the planets, literary fiction, often based on dreams, assumed a central function in projecting notions of natural environments in outer space. Finally, this article will conclude with a discussion of texts by poets and natural scientists who were inclined to present nature (geography and biosphere) as projected onto the inhabitants of other planets. Granted, in the early modern age, most scientists were driven by a mechanistic and physical framework. However, poets and some natural scientists relativized that perspective and offered a remarkable counter-position that later was to undermine the subsequent ethos of disenchantment Max Weber had famously discussed.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
