Main entry:

Carhart, Michael C.

Title & Author:

The science of culture in Enlightenment Germany / Michael C. Carhart.

Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2007.

Description:

xii, 360 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Series:

Harvard historical studies ; 159

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-351) and index.
Introduction: Words and things -- Orientalism and reform -- Culture and the origin of language -- The search for the historical Plato -- The search for the historical Homer -- The search for the historical Moses -- The sociology of ancient history -- Three anthropologies -- A scientific revolution -- Conclusion: Enlightenment social science.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP20.00 0.

Summary:

"In the late 1770s, as a wave of revolution and republican unrest swept across Europe, scholars looked with urgency on the progress of European civilization. The question of social development was addressed from Edinburgh to St. Petersburg, with German scholars, including C.G. Heyne, Christoph Meiners, and J.G. Eichhorn, at the center of the discussion." "Michael Carhart examines their approaches to understanding human development by investigating the invention of a new analytic category, "culture." In an effort to define human nature and culture, scholars analyzed ancient texts for insights into language and the human mind in its early stages, together with writings from modern travelers, who provided data about various primitive societies. Some scholars began to doubt the existence of any essential human nature, arguing instead for human culture. If language was the vehicle of reason, what did it mean that all languages were different? Were rationality and virtue universal or unique to a given nation?" "In this scholarship lie the roots of anthropology, sociology, and classical philology. Dissecting the debates over nature versus culture in Enlightenment Europe, Carhart offers a valuable contribution to cultural and intellectual history and the history of the human sciences."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents only

ISBN:

9780674026179 (alk. paper)
0674026179 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Culture Historiography.
Social evolution.
Language and culture.
Philosophy, German 18th century.
Social sciences Germany History.
Enlightenment Germany.
Cultural Evolution
Évolution sociale.
Langage et culture.
Philosophie allemande 18e siècle.
Sciences sociales Allemagne Histoire.
Siècle des Lumières Allemagne.
Enlightenment
Intellectual life
Philosophy, German
Social sciences
Kulturgeschichtsschreibung
Germany Intellectual life 18th century.
Allemagne Vie intellectuelle 18e siècle.
Germany
Deutschland

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

Harvard historical studies ; v. 159.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 257445
Call No.: BIB 187938
Status: Available