The Lever as Instrument of Reason: Technological Constructions of Knowledge around 1800

Description

The lever appears to be a very simple object, a tool used since ancient times for the most primitive of tasks: to lift and to balance. Why, then, were prominent intellectuals active around 1800 in areas as diverse as science, philosophy, and literature inspired to think and write about levers? In The Lever as Instrument of Reason, readers will discover the remarkable ways in which the lever is used to model the construction of knowledge and to mobilize new ideas among diverse disciplines. These acts of construction are shown to model key aspects of the human, from the more abstract processes of moral decision-making to a quite literal equation of the powerful human ego with the supposed stability and power of the fulcrum point. Titile page Copyright page Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: An Object and Its Positions: The Lever, the Fulcrum, and the Archimedean Point The Lever in Antiquity: Practical Use and Theoretical Reflection Aspects of the Lever in Renaissance Mechanics What a Lever Can Be Where to Put Your Lever: The Archimedean Point The Lever, the Archimedean Point, and the Construction of Knowledge The Lever and Its Point: Constructing a Conceptual Apparatus Overview of the Chapters Chapter One:The Balance of Life / Quantifying Kant Introduction Balancing Acts Quantified Pleasure Moral Mechanics About Thinking Beyond the Material World Conclusion Chapter Two: The Levers of German Romanticism Part One: The Tool of Tools Philosophical Problems and Mechanical Thinking The Levers of Novalis and Schlegel Part Two: The Point of Points The Romantic Point From Point to Lever: The Romantic Fulcrum Constructing the Hypomochlion Part Three: Pointing toward the Human From the Individual to the Social Conclusion Chapter Three: The Contested God of Naturphilosophie Introduction Eschenmayer and the Lever of Naturphilosophie Schelling and the Construction of the Ego The Lever as God of Naturphilosophie Chapter Four: From Naturphilosophie to a Mechanically Minded Psychology Introduction Eighteenth-Century Psychology: An Overview Part One: Eschenmayer’s Psychological Lever The Lever in Empirical and Pure Psychology The Lever of Applied Psychology Excursus: A Surprising Application Part Two: Johann Herbart’s Statics and Mechanics of the Mind Questioning Equilibrium Unavoidable Comparisons Concluding Thoughts Bibliography Index