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Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s Bildungstrieb (1789)
«What is life?» in science, philosophy and politics around 1800.
14–15 October 2021
Programme
14 Oct. 2021     Keynote Address     15 Oct. 2020     Venue     Contact     Funding

Vegetative reproduction of Conferva fontina­lis. This type of algae served as “proto-model organism” for Blumenbach’s research on the Bildungstrieb. Engraving (edited) from “Prof. Blumenbach über eine ungemein einfache Fortpflanzungsart”, in Göttingisches Magazin der Wissenschaften und Litteratur, 2. Jg., 1. Stück (1781), pp. 80–89. Click to enlarge.
Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Arrival
Thursday, 14 October 2021
09.00–09.30 h: Registration. Please provide documents regarding your COVID-19 status (recovered, vaccinated or tested negative).
09.30–09.45 h: GERHARD LAUER (Basel and Mainz):
Introduction to the conference.
Session 1: The naturalistic turn and the concept of self-organisation 1750–1850
Chair: RENATO MAZZOLINI
09.45–10.15 h: MACKENZIE COOLEY (Harvard, Villa I Tatti, Florence):
Domesticating Bildungstrieb: controlled reproduction and its discontents.
10.15–10.45 h: NADINE SCHÄFER (Göttingen); JOACHIM REITNER (Göttingen):
Blumenbach’s natural history objects as a driving force for a modern view of evolvement of life.
10.45–11.15 h: Coffee
11.15–11.45 h: WOLFGANG BÖKER (Göttingen):
Decorative illustrations in Blumenbach’s Bildungstrieb booklet of 1789.
11.45–12.15 h: KARSTEN HECK (Göttingen):
In Blumenbach’s footsteps: Forum Wissen – a new science museum for Goettingen University and its collections.
12.15–12.30 h: Commentary (NICOLAAS RUPKE, Göttingen and Washington & Lee Univ.) and discussion.
12.30–13.30 h: Lunch
13.30–15.00 h: Excursion: The new science museum Forum Wissen
Alte Zoologie, Bürgerstraße 28.
15.00–15.30 h: Tea
Session 2:		 Blumenbach’s Bildungstrieb and the questions of (epi)genesis, regeneration, and reproduction
Chair: UWE HOßFELD (Jena)
15.30–16.00 h: [Zoom presentation] MICHAEL OLSON (Marquette):
Spontaneous generation and the Bildungstrieb.
16.00–16.30 h: [Zoom presentation] CARL NIEKERK (Urbana-Champaign):
Reading Goethe with Blumenbach.
16.30–17.00 h: Commentary (MACKENZIE COOLEY, Harvard, Villa I Tatti, Florence) and discussion.


Title vignette (detail) from J. F. Blumenbach:
Über den Bildungstrieb und das Zeugungs­geschäfte (1781). Click to see complete image.
Keynote speaker, Venue: Aula der Universität, Wilhelmsplatz 1
18.00–19.00 h: NICOLAAS RUPKE (Göttingen and Washington & Lee Univ.):
Introduction
DIETRICH v. ENGELHARDT (Lübeck):
Bildung in Natur und Kultur um 1800: Wissenschaft, Philosophie und Kunst im Dialog
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach coined the term “Bildungstrieb” in 1780. The term originally belonged to the context of the question of the nature of life and the cause of the emergence of organized, living structures from inanimate matter. Blumenbach’s scientific concept of “Bildung” was taken up and further developed in the philosophy, arts, history and jurisprudence of idealism and romanticism. This fascinating dialogue around 1800 between the four cultures of natural sciences, humanities, arts and life, whose separation seems insurmountable today, is the theme of Dietrich v. Engelhardt’s lecture.

19.30–21.00 h: Conference dinner in the restaurant “Bullerjahn” (Ratskeller of the old townhall)

Friday, 15 October 2021
Session 3: Blumenbach’s Bildungstrieb and the wider notion of Bildung
Chair: CHRISTINA BRANDT (Jena)
09.00–09.30 h: THOMAS JUNKER (Tübingen):
Blumenbach and the species concept in anthropology.
09.30–10.00 h: GREGORY LEVIT (Jena); UWE HOßFELD (Jena); ALEXANDER LVOV (St. Petersburg):
Blumenbach in Russia.
10.00–10.30 h: Coffee
10.30–11.00 h: DOMINIK HÜNNIGER (Hamburg):
Zeugungskraft and Bildungstrieb – the meta/physics of insect sexual reproduction, c. 1730–1830.
11.00–11.30 h: N. N.
11.30–12.00 h: Commentary and discussion. (N. N.)
12.00–13.30 h: Lunch
Session 4: ‘What is Life?’ – then and now
Chair: JOACHIM REITNER (Göttingen)
13.30–14.00 h: NICOLAAS RUPKE (Göttingen and Washington & Lee Univ.):
Blumenbach and the unified theory of evolution.
14.00–14.30 h: JOACHIM REITNER (Göttingen):
Early traces of life – a critical approach.
14.30–15.00 h: Tea
15.00–16.30 h: Excursion: Exhibition of natural history objects from Blumenbach’s collections.
Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3.

Venue:
Göttingen
Historisches Gebäude der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek/Old Library Building
Alfred-Hessel-Saal
Please use the side entrance at Papendiek 14.

Contact:
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach – Online
Geiststraße 10
D-37073 Göttingen
Tel: +49-(0)551-39 94 67
kontakt.blumenbach-online[at]gwdg.de
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Side glance
A musical interpretation of the emergence of structure from chaos by “self-organization” was provided as early as 1737 by the French composer Jean Féry Rebel (1666–1747) in the impressingly modern first movement (“Le chaos”) of his ballet “Les Éléments”:

“Rebel added an Avertissement to the printed score […] in which he explained in great detail the compositional ideology and inspiration behind the work. According to Rebel Chaos is ‘that confusion which reigned among the elements before the moment, when subjected to invariable laws, they took their ordained places in the order of nature.’ Rebel goes on to describe how he undertook to represent chaos musically: ‘I dared to undertake to link the idea of the confusion of the elements with that of confusion in harmony. I hazarded to make heard first all sound together or rather all of the notes of the octave united as a single sound.’ Thus was born the first tone cluster in the history of Western art music! The chaos theme returns seven times throughout the movement and each time it appears the struggle between the elements further diminishes in intensity. Chaos concludes with a perfect consonance – an octave. Throughout the movement each of the elements is represented by a distinct musical idea: Earth by slurred bass notes; Water by ascending and descending flute cascades; Air by long sustained notes at the piccolos that conclude with trills; Fire by bravura violin passages.” (Source: http://www.early-music.com/rebel-les-plaisirs-champetres/).

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