Zur Bedeutung der Ästhetik in Carl Vogts populärwissenschaftlichen ReisebriefenOcean und Mittelmeer (1848)

Abstract

Carl Vogt (1817–1895) was an important zoologist and geologist who taught a physically oriented materialism in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Together with A. v. Humboldt, E.A. Roßmäßler, A.E. Brehm and M.J. Schleiden he was a pioneer of the popularisation of natural science. Vogt emphasized the enlightenment function of the natural sciences in the fight against religion and superstition. He spent a two year period with Georg Herwegh and Michail Bakunin on the Mediterranean coasts of France and Italy investigating the anatomy and morphology of ctenophores, siphonophores, worms and other low organized marine animals. Vogt described the results in his bookOcean und Mittelmeer (1848),—a high level publication. It contains reflections on politics, philosophy, the relationship between arts and natural sciences and contemporary painting. His brilliant descriptions of these animals became very important for the biologically oriented aesthetics of nature from the middle of the nineteenth century, especially that of Ernst Haeckel.