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The Making Of A Danish Kantian: Science And The New Civil Society

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies In The Philosophy Of Science ((BSPS,volume 241))

Hans Christian Ørsted’s life (1777–1851) spanned a tremendous development in science. In 1777 there had been no position for the natural sciences at the University of Copenhagen, by 1851 there was a whole faculty. In Copenhagen in 1777 most people engaging in natural philosophy had had a background in theology, and indeed the educated discourse had been sustained almost entirely by the clergy. By 1851, science related more obviously to manufacturing and industry. In 1777, there had been no general education of the populace and learning was perceived as the kind of training that the young nobility received. By 1851, the more methodical teaching involving exams and graduations were common and opened the door to positions of power and influence. Natural scientists were becoming increasingly professionalized.

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References

  1. Hopefully, the recent translations of Ørsted papers will also help to broaden the view of Ørsted: Selected scientific works of Hans Christian Ørsted, translated and edited by Karen Jelved, Andrew D. Jackson, and Ole Knudsen; with an introduction by Andrew D. Wilson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998).

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  15. This is a very early manifestation of proto-nationalism, maybe the first.

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  19. Ole Feldbæk, Den lange fred (n. 2), pp. 209–210. There was also a genre of useful knowledge, perhaps best compared to current do-it-yourself/home improvement literature, Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud—Romantikkens teknologiske konstruktion 1780–1850 (Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 1999), p. 106.

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  21. Ibid. p. 321.

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  24. Ibid. p. 163.

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  25. Ibid. p. 155–157; Dan Ch. Christensen, Det moderne projekt: teknik og kultur i Danmark-Norge, 1750–(1814)–1850 (København: Gyldendal, 1996).

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  27. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (n. 4).

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  29. Jan Golinski, Science as Public Culture—Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820, (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 5.

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  30. Ibid. p. 8.

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  31. Ibid. p. 9.

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  32. Dan Ch. Christensen’s forthcoming Ørsted-biography will analyze the circles in which he moved on the basis of unpublished sources and give us a much better picture than I am able to provide here.

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  33. It might be well to remember that experimental practice in private and public had not yet hardened into the form that is now so familiar to us. As Iwan Morus has put it, referring especially to the early 19th century: “Experiment, after all, is an attribution that endows a particular event or activity with significance and status. It is not a transcendental category. That a particular way of going on counts as doing an experiment is the outcome of a number of factors ranging from the social status of the performer, through the space where the performance took place, to the outcome of the activity”. Iwan Morus, Frankenstein’s Children—Electricity, Exhibition, and Experiment in Early-Nineteenth-Century London, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp. 10–11. In Copenhagen, the most prominent person to define the new categories of public lecturing was Hans Christian Ørsted, who, as we shall see, indeed contributed to the remodeling of public life as a whole.

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  35. To my knowledge, he never uses the word sublime but always refers to “the Good, the True, and the Beautiful”. But the sublime covers the meaning entirely satisfactorily.

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  36. Mathilde Ørsted (ed.), Breve (n. 28), pp. 38–9, 43.

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  37. Kirstine Meyer, “H. C. Ørsteds Arbejdsliv i det danske Samfund”, in H. C. Ørsteds naturvidenskabelige Skrifter, edited by Kirstine Meyer, København: Andr. Fred. Høst, 1920, vol. 3, XI-CLXVI, at XVII–XIX.

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  38. Much attention is being paid to their joint theorizing and friendship with Novalis (Hauch, n. 2, at 122) and less to the fact that unlike Kant, Schelling, or Fichte, they worked with their hands. Hans Christian’s own apologetic explanation of 1826 is that “Ritter had let himself be led astray by his prejudiced imagination. … Winterl was a man of great thoughts but without a keen apprehension of the specific. His experiments, if one may call them so, are without value”, “Ørsted (Hans Christian)”, in Conversations-Lexicon (n. 2), at 523.

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  39. “Il est vrai que ce n’est pas sans raison qu’on lui a reproché de s’être trop abandonné à des conceptions trop hasardées, et même peut-être extravagantes”. Kirstine Meyer, vol. 2, p. 175. The danger of a loss of authority when one’s body was involved in experimentation was brought to a head in the debates around mesmerism, cf. Alison Winter, Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1998).

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  40. “Indbydelse til physiske og chemiske Forelæsninger”, Reprinted in Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), pp. 78–79.

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  41. C. Hauch, “Hans Christian Ørsted’s Levnet” (note 2), at 125–126. Hauch points out that many older attendants were less enthusiastic.

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  42. It was only published in 1851, but the date given there is 1808, Efterladte Skrifter (note 2), vol. 5, 41–105.

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  43. “Many learned and distinguished men attended”, “Ørsted (Hans Christian)”, in Conversations-Lexicon (note 2), at 526. “[T]he publications and the lectures cleared the way to the professorial position in 1806”, ibid. p. 528.

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  44. Kirstine Meyer, “The scientific life and works of H. C. Ørsted”, in H. C. Ørsteds naturvidenskabelige Skrifter, edited by Kirstine Meyer, 1920, vol. 1, XIII–CLXVI, at XLVI, the quote is reproduced from Hauch’s biography, cf. n. 2.

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  45. Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at XXVI.

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  46. Ibid. at XXXII.

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  47. “Ørsted (Hans Christian)”, in Conversations-Lexicon (n. 2), at 532. He held such lectures also in French in 1823–1824, ibid. p. 539.

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  48. Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at XXXIV.

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  49. For example Esmarch, ibid. at XXXIV.

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  50. Hauch, p. 129 (n. 2).

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  51. Thoughts on the History of Chemistry (1807), the first part of a textbook entitled Science of the general laws of Nature (1809), used both at the University and at the Army Academy, and Recherches sur l’identité des forces chimiques et électriques (1813, original German version 1812); cf. Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (note 37), at XXXI.

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  52. Ibid. at LIX. The published sources are the basis for my discussion of Hans Christian’s lecturing practice. A more satisfying account could be assembled using archival and manuscript sources.

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  53. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (n. 4), p. 198.

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  54. “Om Grunden til den Fornøjelse, Tonerne frembringe. En Samtale”., reprinted in Efterladte Skrifter, vol. 3 (n. 2), pp. 67–99.

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  55. Hauch, p. 127–128 (n. 2).

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  56. John Hedley Brooke, Science and Religion—Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 193–194. The word deism is also used by Ørsted’s first biographer, Hauch, p. 173 (n. 2). The Ørsted brothers read Payne with enthusiasm as boys, cf. Anders Sandøe Ørsted, Af mit Livs (n. 22), p. 18.

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  57. Robert Fox, “The rise and fall of Laplacian physics”, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 4 (1974), pp. 89–136.

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  58. Quoted in H. C. Ørsted, Imod den store Anklager, Kiøbenhavn: Andreas Seidelin, (1814), p. 50.

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  59. Quoted in ibid. p. 88.

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  60. Ibid. p. 50.

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  61. Ibid. p. 63.

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  62. Ibid. p. 52.

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  63. Ibid. pp. 53–54.

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  64. A few pages earlier he had explained with the example of a judge, presumably inspired by a conversation with his brother, who may well have an excellent law book to aid them, but if he has no knowledge of the actual case at hand, he remains helpless. The judge needs three things: knowledge of the written law, understanding of the case at hand, and good judgment, ibid. pp. 48–49. Authority cannot be lodged in the written law alone.

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  65. Ibid. pp. 55, 83, 98, 133, 137. This list of pages is not exhaustive.

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  66. Hauch (n. 2), p. 145.

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  67. When a faculty of science was finally accepted.

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  68. Meyer argues that Hans Christian was inspired by the funding through subscription of the London Institution that he visited in 1822, but the Danish version sent teachers to teach throughout the country and did not have a central building with a lecture hall in the capital. Kirstine “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at XCVI. Also, according to Hauch (n. 2), p. 178, Hans Christian was a member of the Royal Institution, not the London, which would make more sense, given the comparison with Faraday above. The Society also co-organized an Industrial Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1836 highlighting education of håndværkerey, Sunday schools, and travel grants for håndværkere and manufacturers, Ida Haugsted, “Industriudstillingen 1836—Design, teknik, håndværk”, in Krydsfelt (n. 2), at 171.

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  69. Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud (n. 19), p. 122; Ole B. Thomsen, Embedsstudiernes universitet- en undersøgelse af Københavns universitets fundats af 1788 som grundlag for vores nuværende studiestruktur, 2 vols., København: Akademisk Forlag, 1975.

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  70. Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud (n. 19), pp. 185–303. Bruno Belhoste et al. La Formation Polytechnicienne : 1794–1994, Paris: Dunod, 1994.

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  71. Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud (n. 19), p. 291.

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  72. Ibid. pp. 124–125.

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  73. Ibid. p. 182.

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  74. Ibid. p. 294.

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  76. Ibid. pp. 109–110.

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  77. Ibid. p. 220; also p. 124 and Kirstine Meyer, vol. 3 (n. 37); and Jørgen Broberg Nielsen and Eivind Slottved, “Fakultetets almindelige historie”, in Københavns Universitets historie 1479–1979—Bind XII—Det matematisk-naturvidenskabelige Fakultet, København, 1983.

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  78. Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud (n. 19), p. 293.

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  79. Ibid. p. 382.

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  80. Ibid. p. 294. Wagner accepts and uses the dismissive vocabulary of the subsequent generation: romantic had the overtones of the lack of self-discipline that was pinned on Ritter. Ørsted would have flinched at this attribution.

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  81. For example Ditlev Tamm, Fra “lovkyndighed” til “retsvidenskab”—Studier over betydningen af fremmed ret for Anders Sandøe Ørsteds privatretlige forfatterskab, København: Juristforbundets Forlag, 1976, 17. A similar development from natural law to positivist law took place elsewhere in Europe, ibid. p. 23.

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  82. Ibid. p. 37.

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  83. Troels G. Jørgensen, De Ørstedske Straffelove, Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag, (1948), p. 10.

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  84. Anders Sandøe Ørsted, Af mit Livs (n. 22), p. 117.

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  85. Ibid. pp. 78–79.

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  86. Ditlev Tamm & Jens Ulf Jørgensen, Dansk retshistorie i hovedpunkter—Fra landskabslovene til Ørsted–II–Oversigt over retsudviklingen, København: Universitetsforlaget i København, (1973), p. 51.

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  87. Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir—naissance de la prison, Paris : Gallimard, (1975).

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  88. Quoted in “Ørsted (Anders Sandøe), in Conversations-Lexicon (n. 2), at 555–556.

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  91. Troels Georg Jørgensen, Anders Sandøe Ørsted—juristen og politikeren (København: A. Frost-Hansen, 1957), p. 287.

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  92. Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (n. 4), pp. 189–190.

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  93. “I have little respect for so-called legal philosophies consisting of dead meaningless form and without any connection to real justice which after all is supposed to be the scopus jurisprudentiæ. The day-to-day law that serves to advance and maintain legal order is just in my opinion, and I know no other source for determining rights”. Juristisk Arkiv, no. 4 (1805), p. 108; quoted in Troels G. Jørgensen, Anders Sandøe Ørsted som Dommer (København, H. Hagerups Forlag, 1928), p. 20.

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  94. Quoted in Carl Henrik Koch, “Ørsted og Striden om Viljens Frihed”, in Anders Sandøe Ørsted 1778–1978—Foredrag i anledning af 200-året for Anders Sandøe Ørsteds fødsel, edited by Ditlev Tamm (København: Juristforbundets Forlag, 1980), 87–121, at 90.

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  95. Claus Bjørn, Fra reaktion til grundlov (n. 11), p. 49. The timing of Anders Sandøe’s activities tallies well with the 1813–1815 shifts in Europe with regard to serfdom, clerical courts, and noble courts. In France, for example, new legal codes were introduced: Code Civil 1804, Code Commercial 1808, Code Criminel 1813. cf. Isser Woloch, The new regime: transformations of the French civic order, 1789–1820s (New York: Norton, 1994).

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  96. Ditlev Tamm, Fra “lovkyndighed” til “retsvidenskab” (n. 81), p. 25.

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  97. Simon Schaffer, “Enlightened automata”, in Sciences in Enlightened Europe, edited by Jan Golinski, Simon Schaffer, and William Clark (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 126–165.

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  98. Anders Sandøe Ørsted, Af mit Livs (n. 22), 122. Also: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (n. 4), 191; Carl Henrik Koch, “Ørsted og Striden om Viljens Frihed”, in Anders Sandøe Ørsted 1778–1978—Foredrag i anledning af 200-året for Anders Sandøe Ørsteds fødsel, edited by Ditlev Tamm, København: Juristforbundets Forlag, 1980, pp. 87–121. Koch sides with Howitz, and as Charles Rosenberg argues: in late 19th-century USA and now, forensic liberalism “assume a deterministic stance, conservatives a less deterministic one; Charles Rosenberg, The trial of the Assassin Guiteau—Psychiatry and Law in the Gilded Age, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1968, xv. One could indeed map Howitz, Koch, and Anders Sandøe along a left-right political spectrum. (The theme of psychiatry in the context of the insanity defense recurred in US history (and presumably elsewhere); cf. James C. Mohr, Doctors and the Law—Medical Jurisprudence in Nineteenth-Century America (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). Anders Sandøe championed private property too, which, although it may have seemed liberating in the Ørsteds’ youth, this was by no means obvious by the time of their death. Not surprisingly, Karl Marx was less than impressed with Anders Sandøe’s autobiography: “a colossal state haemorrhoid”, cf. Karl Marx to Friedrich Engels, 22 May 1857, in Marx and Engels Complete Works, vol. 40, Moscow, 1929, p. 132. “an enormous political hemorrhoid” in Letters of Karl Marx, ed. 5. Podover, New Jersey, 1979, p. 117.

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  99. Anders Sandøe Ørsted, Af mit Livs (n. 22), 183.

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  100. Ibid., 186–187.

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  101. N. F. S. Grundtvig, Vigtige Spørgsmaal til Danmarks Lovkyndige, Kjöbenhavn: Wahl, 1826, esp. pp. 12–13. Grundtvig’s stance was that authority should be lodged with people like him, and as such generally against the academic expertise, the “exegetical popism”. It reacted against ever more rationalist Bible-analysis from academic theologians, and especially against attempts to ground the teachings of the church in rationalist readings. He insisted on the role of common sense, giving as an example also heliocentrism as an example of the academic teachings violating common sense. Sune Auken, “Naturen som tegn—Om Grundtvig og naturvidenskaben”, in Krydsfelt—Ånd og natur i Guldalderen, edited by Mogens Bencard, (København: Gyldendal, 2000), pp. 214–223, at 219 and 221.

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  102. Leif Grane, “Ørsted og kirkekampen i 1820-rne”, in Anders Sandøe Ørsted 1778–1978—Foredrag i anledning af 200-året for Anders Sandøe Ørsteds fødsel, edited by Ditlev Tamm, (København: Juristforbundets Forlag, 1980), pp. 122–147, at 125.

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  103. He got into political trouble as a result and was ordered to curtail his public scholarship. “Ørsted, Anders Sandøe”, Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, Sekstende Bind, Woldbye-Aastrup, (København: Gyldendal, 1984), pp. 192–194.

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  104. “Ørsted (Hans Christian)”, in Conversations-Lexicon (note 2), at 541.

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  105. Claus Bjørn, Fra reaktion til grundlov (n. 11), p. 159.

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  106. Ibid., 164. Dannelse has the same connotations as the German Bildung, and may be translated as the process of becoming educated, civilized, and cultured.

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  107. “Naturvidenskaben betragtet som en af Grundbestanddelene i Menneskets Dannelse”, Efterladte Skrifter, vol. 5 (n. 2), pp. 129–142 (original in Nyt Aftenblad, 10 January 1824).

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  108. “Ingen Rangstrid mellem de forskjellige Stænder” (Against ranking amongst the different estates), Efterladte Skrifter, vol. 7 (n. 2), pp. 97–102, original in Dansk Folkeblad, 1836. The immediate context of this article was the new assembly of the estates and the heated negotiation of hierarchies there.

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  109. “Folkets Oplysning Fyrsten Heldbringende”, Efterladte Skrifter, vol. 5 (n. 2), pp. 143–166 (original in Nyt Aftenblad, 18 March 1826).

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  110. “Den almindelige Naturlæres Aand og Væsen”, reprinted in Efterladte Skrifter, vol. 5 (n. 2), pp. 106–128; at 115–116.

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  111. Claus Bjørn, Fra reaktion til grundlov (n. 11), p. 185.

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  112. Ibid. p. 52.

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  113. Hauch (n. 2), p. 142.

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  114. Hauch (n. 2), pp. 143–145.

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  115. “Serious” is a common term used to describe Hans Christian, e.g. Hauch (n. 2), p. 148.

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  116. Joakim Garff, SAK—Søren Aabye Kierkegaard—en biografi, (København: Gads Forlag, 2000), esp. pp. 54–91. The public sphere changes match those in Germany in this period.

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  117. Claus Bjørn, Fra reaktion til grundlov (n. 11), p. 162.

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  118. Ibid. p. 163.

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  119. Ibid. p. 320–324. Hans Christian seems to have been less interested in the boundary between man and machine than contemporary British natural philosophers, for whom the machine and especially the steam engine was much more present.

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  120. H. C. Ørsteds naturvidenskabelige Skrifter, edited by Kirstine Meyer, 1920 (n. 37), vol. II, 411–413, 497.

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  121. Ibid. pp. 413–415.

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  122. Ibid. p. 478.

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  123. Ibid. p. 482.

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  124. Ibid. p. 500.

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  125. For example Karl-Heinz Manegold, Universität, technische Hochschule und Industrie; ein Beitrag zur Emanzipation der Technik im 19. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Bestrebungen Felix Kleins, (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1970).

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  126. Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at XCIV–XCV.

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  127. Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at CIII.

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  128. It is most interesting that Hans Christian conducted experiments with Fourier in Paris in 1823 and that their joint publication is in the style of Fourier. Hans Christian describes his prejudices against the French in “Ørsted (Hans Christian)”, in Conversations-Lexicon (n. 2), at 524. He describes the much more sympathetic stance he developed to Parisian savants in a letter, quoted in extenso in Hauch (n. 2), pp. 153–155.

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  129. For example, Repp criticized both the style of teaching and the lack of mathematical acuity in his 1844 textbook, Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at CLV–CLXI.

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  130. Sværmeri corresponds quite well to romanticism with the pejorative overtones of uncontrolled passions.

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  131. “Mindetale over det Kongelige danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Præses Hans Excellence Geheimestatsminister Ernst Heinrich Greve af Schimmelmann”, held 14 July 1831, published in Efterladte Skrifter (n. 2), vol. 6, pp. 50–70, esp. pp. 67–69.

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  132. “Danskhed—en Tale” (Dansk Folkeblad, 1836), reprinted in Efterladte Skrifter (n. 2), vol. 7, pp. 39–58. Hans Christian had discussed the role of the genius in his 1807 history of chemistry but not in terms of control of passions. His 1807 discussion merely has the genius as ahead of the times and not essential; science progresses with a general momentum within which no individual is indispensable, “Betragtninger over Chemiens Historie, en Forelæsning”, Efterladte Skrifter (n. 2), vol. 5, pp. 1–33, at 25–27.

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  133. Claus Bjørn, Fra reaktion til grundlov (n. 11), p. 198.

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  134. Ibid. p. 189.

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  135. Ibid. p. 191.

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  136. Ibid. p. 198.

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  137. Ibid. pp. 207–212.

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  138. Kirstine Meyer, “Arbejdsliv” (n. 37), at CLIV.

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  139. Claus Bjørn, Fra reaktion til grundlov (n. 11), pp. 338–339.

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  140. Redact., “Om Naturvidenskabernes Fremstilling for Folket”, Dansk Ugeskrift, No. 15, 1832.

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  141. Efterladte Skrifter (n. 2), vol. 4, pp. 17–18, 37. This seems to refer primarily to the uncivil tone in political debate, and perhaps specifically to Germans. The enemy of many was of course literally Hans Christian’s brother: Anders Sandøe held various ministerial posts between 1842 and 1853, including that of prime minister. His reactionary policies have meant that contemporaries attacked him viciously; and 20th-century secondary literature is much less fulsome with its praise of his legal than his political work.

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  142. Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud (n. 19), p. 387.

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  143. Ole Jørgen Rawert, Danmarks industrielle Forhold indtil 1848, (København, 1850); also Michael F. Wagner, Det polytekniske gennembrud (n. 19), p. 391.

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  144. Ibid. p. 382.

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  145. Hans Vammen, “‘Schouw er velsignet’—En professor og hans guldaldernetværk”, in Krydsfelt—Ånd og natur i Guldalderen, edited by Mogens Bencard, (København: Gyldendal, 2000), pp. 246–257.

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  146. Norbert Elias, The Court Society, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 55.

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  147. Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and other Commissioners, charged by the King of France, with the examination of the Animal Magnetism, as now practised at Paris, London, 1785; Alison Winter, Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1998).

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  148. Ditlev Tamm, Fra “lovkyndighed” til “retsvidenskab” (n. 81), p. 25; Troels G. Jørgensen, De Ørstedske Straffelove (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag, 1948), pp. 63–66.

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  149. Much of his activity relates to this issue: ibid.: The nature of denial under oath (42), burden of proof (56), sanity (63), denial under oath may not count as evidence (73), juramentum ignorantiæ (76), circumstantial evidence (81), presumption of reality of public documents (86), acceptance of affidavit (119), punishment for lying under oath (121), trustworthiness of police officers (123), proof of lie under oath (131), swearing in a Jew (134), abuse of force during interrogation (142), proof of causal occurrence in murder cases (143), sanity in murder case (145, i mordsag 162), punishment for calling unnecessary witness (159).

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  150. “Veien fra Naturen til Gud”, vol. 3 of Efterladte Skrifter (n. 2).

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Hessenbruch, A. (2007). The Making Of A Danish Kantian: Science And The New Civil Society. In: Brain, R.M., Cohen, R.S., Knudsen, O. (eds) Hans Christian Ørsted And The Romantic Legacy In Science. Boston Studies In The Philosophy Of Science, vol 241. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2987-5_3

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