Scientific literacy in eighteenth-century Germany

Critics tend to qualify German intellectual life in the eighteenth century as a development that assumed a separate course from that of its French and English counterparts. 1 The German Sonderweg is attributed to the country's complex history of fractious politics that did not support the notion of centralized authority, but instead encouraged a state of outright instability, which presented itself as an ever-changing establishment and re-establishment of political allegiances to suit momentary rule. Germany's Kleinstaaterei, its existence as a loose alliance of small princely states, posed an obvious challenge to the formation of a uniform intellectual culture because its disparate nature undermined the very idea of commonality in favour of more regional tendencies. Yet, German intellectual culture did flourish in the eighteenth century, establishing a national presence and a strong tradition of academic thought, developments that are now seen as intertwined and inextricably linked. German Aufklrung was strongly felt at all levels of society, as it informed opinions, affected points of view and profoundly changed the manner in which one regarded the world. Arguably, its most significant effect was, however, on language itself, for writers of the German Enlightenment increasingly endorsed German as a language of learned discourse, deeming it not only capable of communicating abstract expression, but also entrusting its vernacular quality to be credible enough to encompass the depths of their own intellectual discoveries

Literacy · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Science education · Scientific Literacy · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Historical and Literary Studies · History · History of Science and Natural History · Psychology

• Languages of Science in the Eighteenth Century

  Britt‐Louise Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise Gunnarsson•Languages of Science in the…•2011

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• Useless Subjects

  Open Access•Matt Erlin•The German Quarterly•2007

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