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ON MAN’S FREEDOM IN ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
Manfred Osten
; Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Bonn, Deutschland
Abstract
The author looks into the life and work of Alexander von Humboldt. He makes him into a protagonist of a scientific globalizational concept that linked the promotion of science with the trinity of liberty, equality and fraternity. Humboldt, namely, thought that “fraternité” is realized in the form of a worldwide dialogue of scientists. The author observes that Humboldt was a pragmatic and organizational genius of networking i.e. the strategy of public relations that included contacts with scientists and the popularization of scientific achievements. Humboldt’s Eurocentrism that comes to the fore in his work about his travels is nevertheless as ambivalent as is the history of the reception of that work. Truth to tell, this work lay the foundation for European colonization, the economic approach and the exploitation of Latin America, but was also essential for its selfunderstanding and political emancipation. The author claims that Humboldt’s private and political ambivalence, essentially productive, is the result of his magnificent incompleteness and imperfections.
Keywords
Alexander von Humboldt; freedom; fraternité; Germany; France; Latin America; science
Hrčak ID:
23677
URI
Publication date:
5.3.2003.
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