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Cosmos. Ensayo de una descripción física del mundo
En 1834, en una carta a Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, Humboldt declaraba: ¿Tengo la disparatada idea de plasmar en una sola obra todo el universo material, todo lo que hoy en día sabemos de los fenómenos de los espacios celestes y de la vida terrestre, desde las nebulosas estelares hasta la geografía de los musgos en las rocas de granito, con un estilo vivo que causará deleite y cautivará la sensibilidad [¿] Ahora mi título es Cosmos. Cosmos supone el gran intento del sabio prusiano de hacer una obra general de síntesis de los conocimientos de su época. Pero su valor no radica solo en su dimensión estrictamente científica, sino también en su ideario filosófico. Rescatar algunos de sus valores, como la universalidad del conocimiento, el respeto entre las diferentes culturas, la libertad del hombre, los derechos humanos y la democracia es, sin duda, uno de los retos que nos planteamos en la actualidad.
968 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1862
About the author
Alexander von Humboldt
1,123 books217 followersExpeditions of German scientist Baron Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt to Latin America from 1799 to 1804 and to Siberia in 1829 greatly advanced the fields of ecology, geology, and meteorology.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt, a naturalist and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt, explored. Quantitative botanical work of Humboldt founded biogeography.
Humboldt traveled extensively, explored, and described for the first time in a generally considered modern manner and point of view. He wrote up his description of the journey and published an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He first proposed that forces once joined South America and Africa, the lands, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of knowledge. Humboldt supported, included, and worked with Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, and Matthew Fontaine Maury and most notably conducted much of his exploration with Aimé Bonpland.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt, a naturalist and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt, explored. Quantitative botanical work of Humboldt founded biogeography.
Humboldt traveled extensively, explored, and described for the first time in a generally considered modern manner and point of view. He wrote up his description of the journey and published an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He first proposed that forces once joined South America and Africa, the lands, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of knowledge. Humboldt supported, included, and worked with Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, and Matthew Fontaine Maury and most notably conducted much of his exploration with Aimé Bonpland.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 14, 2025
Wie immer eine sehr schöne Ausgabe der anderen Bibliothek. Leider ist das Werk extrem zeitgebunden und deswegen hoffnungslos veraltet.
May 22, 2026
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) belongs to a special era when the earth could be explored by someone equipped with scientific knowledge (and, not incidentally, quite familiar with classical literature), so as to produce a natural history not as yet overloaded with the theory we now possess—whereas we moderns for the most part have forgotten the former, and barely bother to know the latter. An observation such as the immediately preceding is why everyone nowadays, especially the American, finds himself so happy to destroy our world at an ever-accelerating pace in the restless and reckless pursuit of consumeristic economic gain!
From Chap. 3, Naturgemaelde: Allgemeine Uebersicht der Erscheinungen onwards, the style suddenly becomes very dry and descriptive (as is central to von Humboldt’s conception of his work, which is not to be merely poetical; hence, in a fine passage we read about the constant movement everywhere in the cosmos [p. 76]). Subjects are drawn from the professional and amateur literature of the day (to the extent there is any difference between the two). For instance, many inhabitants of western Europe took an interest in the aurora, which for most of them could be seen infrequently. So, von Humboldt freely discusses ‘Vorboten des Nordlichtes’ [pp. 100-102]—a basically correct explanation of how the northern lights function as a telluric activity. The modern reader will find it interesting how von Humboldt can coordinate observations across continents and days before and after, and, in a text devoid of photographs portrays more than this reviewer, for one, knew from just looking at color images (most of these observed phenomena can now be deduced from our theories). Another topic in this connection would be parallax measurements of the height at which northern lights occur [p. 103].
Note the bottom-up approach throughout, starting for instance from individually named earthquakes and their observed features, versus the top-down approach a modern textbook would take. In this major respect, Alexander von Humboldt resembles Johann Joachim Winckelmann (cf. our review of the latter’s groundbreaking Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (1763–), here). One will also remark, passim, on how abundant amounts of local knowledge are integrated in this descriptive account of the earth. Plus, art-historical and travel-diary oriented references are embedded throughout, what of course any self-respecting scientist would refrain from in a modern textbook!
Another major topic is that of fossils, then an area of study in its infancy: ‘in der Eingeschränktheit unseres Wissens vom Werden, in der Bildersprache, welche diese Eingeschränktheit verbergen soll, nennen wir neue Schöpfungen die historischen Phänomene des Wechsels in den Organismen, wie in der Bewohnung der Urgewässer und des gehobenen trockenen Bodens’ [p. 141ff; note von Humboldt’s careful language]. Von Humboldt mentions Georges Cuvier’s (1769-1832) conclusions about evolution but does not see that plants formed before animals (in fact, he is correct in this view as we now know). Lastly, does he anticipate continental drift? [p. 149]
The following key passage documents von Humboldt's claim to have been the founder of the field of ecology:
Aus dieser Kenntniß der gegenseitigen Einwirkung von Luft, Meer und Land ergiebt sich, daß große meterologische Phänomene, von geognostischen Betrachtungen getrennt, nicht verstanden worden können. Die Meteorologie, wie die Geographie der Pflanzen und Thiere haben erst begonnen einige Fortschritte zu machen, seitdem man sich von der gegenseitigen Abhängigkeit der zu ergründenen Erscheinungen überzeugt hat. Das Wort Klima bezeichnet allerdings zuerst eine specifische Beschaffenheit des Luftkreises; aber diese Beschaffenheit ist abhängig von dem perpetuirlichen Zusammenwirken einer all- und tiefbewegten, durch Strömungen van ganz entgegengesetzter Temperatur durchfurchten Meeresfläche mit der wärmestrahlenden trocknen Erde, die mannigfaltig gegliedert, erhört, nackt oder mit Wald und Kräutern bedeckt ist. [p. 150]
The later chapters contain a lot about geology, and nothing about electrodynamics or thermodynamics or kinetic theory (what was ‘in the air’ among the scientific cognoscente of von Humboldt’s day). By training, he cares more about what’s on the earth or in the heavens than about thoeretical physics and chemistry per se. Today one reads von Humboldt more for the natural philosophy than for the scientific statements themselves, but in terms of page count the latter by far dominate. Thus, however piquant in its day it may have been, Kosmos has now to be seen more as a document of its times and less so as a resource for us today, hence couldn’t really be called a classic.
Von Humboldt’s Winckelmannian humanism, as revealed especially in the chapter on Geschichte der physichen Weltanschauung shows his project to aspire to more than merely to assemble an encyclopedia of knowledge about the world. For von Humboldt, indeed, Kosmos bears the imprint of a spiritual aspect, viz., the world seen as the stage on which man and nature greet one another and interact, forming a harmony which is really the quasi-religious quasi-pantheistic viewpoint he wants to communicate with his whole authorship:
Die Natur ist für die denkende Betrachtung Einheit in der Vielheit, Verbindung des Mannigfaltigen in Form und Mischung, Inbegriff der Naturdinge und Naturkräfte, als ein lebendiges Ganze. Das wichtigste Resultat des sinnigen physischen Forschens ist daher dieses: in der Mannigfaltigkeit die Einheit zu erkennen, von dem Individuellen alles zu umfassen, was die Entdeckungen der letzteren Zeitalter uns darbieten, die Einzelheiten prüfend zu sondern und doch nicht ihrer Masse zu unterliegen, der erhabenen Bestimmung des Menschen eingedenk, den Geist der Natur zu ergreifen, welcher under der Decke der Erscheinungen verhüllt liegt. Auf diesem Wege reicht unser Bestrebungen über die enge Grenze der Sinnenwelt hinaus, und es kann uns gelingen, die Natur begreifend, den rohen Stoff empirischer Anschauung gleichsam durch den Ideen zu beherrschen. [p. 10]
Je mehr aber während einer glänzenden Erweiterung aller Naturwissenschaften das Material des sicheren empirischen Wissens anwichs, desto mehr erkaltete allmälig der Trieb, das Wesen der Erscheinungen und ihre Einheit, als ein Naturganzes, durch Construction der Begriffe aus der Vernunft-Erkenntniß abzuleiten. In der uns nahen Zeit hat der mathematische Theil der Naturphilosophie sich einer großen und herrlichen Ausbildung zu erfreuen gehabt. Die Methoden und das Instrument (die Analyse) sind gleichzeitig vervollkommnet worden. Was so auf vielfachen Wegen durch sinnige Anwendung atomistischer Prämissen, durch allgemeineren und unmittelbareren Contact mit der Natur, durch das Hervorrufen und Ausbilden neuer Organe errungen ist, soll, wie im Alterthume, so auch jetzt, ein gemeinsames Gut der Menschheit, der freiesten Bearbeitung der Philosophie in ihren wechselnden Gestaltungen nicht entzogen werden. [p. 37]
Kosmos raises for us moderns the issue as to what it means to love anything at all, whether our globe or one’s wife. The medieval German minnen has long since been replaced by the modern Hochdeutsch lieben as a result presumably of Luther’s epochal intervention into Geistesgeschichte (the real meaning of which must remain a topic for another time). Nonethess, one can trace the shift from etymological clues: minnen derives from ‘to mind’, or ‘to dwell upon in one’s mind’ (cf. Luke 2:51b, καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ δɩετήρεɩ πάντα τὰ ῥήματα ἐν τῇ ϰαρδίᾳ αὐτῆς), while lieben (as with to love in English) from ‘to like’; the latter, thus, being more affective than cognitive in orientation. Vide, in connection with this contention:
Naturbeschreibungen, wiederhole ich, können scharf umgrenzt und wissenschaftlich genau sein, ohne daß ihnen darum der belebende Hauch der Einbildungskraft entzogen bleibt. Das Dichterische muß aus dem geahndeten Zusammenhange des Sinnlichen mit dem Intellectuellen, aus dem Gefühl der Allverbreitung, der gegenseitigen Begrenzung und der Einheit des Naturlebens hervorgehen. Je erhabener die Gegenstände sind, desto sorgfältiger muß der äußere Schmuck der Rede vermieden werden. Die eigentliche Wirkung eines Naturgemäldes ist in seiner Composition begründet; jede geflissentliche Anregung von Seiten dessen, der es aufstellt, kann nur störend werden. [pp. 223-224]
If only contemporary men could recover something more like von Humboldt’s way of being! Precisely such a desideratum is the objective of the Palestinian humanist and philosopher Dalia Nassar in her recent monograph Romantic Empiricism: Nature, Art and Ecology from Herder to Humboldt (Oxford University Press, 2022), which we intend to review next.
From Chap. 3, Naturgemaelde: Allgemeine Uebersicht der Erscheinungen onwards, the style suddenly becomes very dry and descriptive (as is central to von Humboldt’s conception of his work, which is not to be merely poetical; hence, in a fine passage we read about the constant movement everywhere in the cosmos [p. 76]). Subjects are drawn from the professional and amateur literature of the day (to the extent there is any difference between the two). For instance, many inhabitants of western Europe took an interest in the aurora, which for most of them could be seen infrequently. So, von Humboldt freely discusses ‘Vorboten des Nordlichtes’ [pp. 100-102]—a basically correct explanation of how the northern lights function as a telluric activity. The modern reader will find it interesting how von Humboldt can coordinate observations across continents and days before and after, and, in a text devoid of photographs portrays more than this reviewer, for one, knew from just looking at color images (most of these observed phenomena can now be deduced from our theories). Another topic in this connection would be parallax measurements of the height at which northern lights occur [p. 103].
Note the bottom-up approach throughout, starting for instance from individually named earthquakes and their observed features, versus the top-down approach a modern textbook would take. In this major respect, Alexander von Humboldt resembles Johann Joachim Winckelmann (cf. our review of the latter’s groundbreaking Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (1763–), here). One will also remark, passim, on how abundant amounts of local knowledge are integrated in this descriptive account of the earth. Plus, art-historical and travel-diary oriented references are embedded throughout, what of course any self-respecting scientist would refrain from in a modern textbook!
Another major topic is that of fossils, then an area of study in its infancy: ‘in der Eingeschränktheit unseres Wissens vom Werden, in der Bildersprache, welche diese Eingeschränktheit verbergen soll, nennen wir neue Schöpfungen die historischen Phänomene des Wechsels in den Organismen, wie in der Bewohnung der Urgewässer und des gehobenen trockenen Bodens’ [p. 141ff; note von Humboldt’s careful language]. Von Humboldt mentions Georges Cuvier’s (1769-1832) conclusions about evolution but does not see that plants formed before animals (in fact, he is correct in this view as we now know). Lastly, does he anticipate continental drift? [p. 149]
The following key passage documents von Humboldt's claim to have been the founder of the field of ecology:
Aus dieser Kenntniß der gegenseitigen Einwirkung von Luft, Meer und Land ergiebt sich, daß große meterologische Phänomene, von geognostischen Betrachtungen getrennt, nicht verstanden worden können. Die Meteorologie, wie die Geographie der Pflanzen und Thiere haben erst begonnen einige Fortschritte zu machen, seitdem man sich von der gegenseitigen Abhängigkeit der zu ergründenen Erscheinungen überzeugt hat. Das Wort Klima bezeichnet allerdings zuerst eine specifische Beschaffenheit des Luftkreises; aber diese Beschaffenheit ist abhängig von dem perpetuirlichen Zusammenwirken einer all- und tiefbewegten, durch Strömungen van ganz entgegengesetzter Temperatur durchfurchten Meeresfläche mit der wärmestrahlenden trocknen Erde, die mannigfaltig gegliedert, erhört, nackt oder mit Wald und Kräutern bedeckt ist. [p. 150]
The later chapters contain a lot about geology, and nothing about electrodynamics or thermodynamics or kinetic theory (what was ‘in the air’ among the scientific cognoscente of von Humboldt’s day). By training, he cares more about what’s on the earth or in the heavens than about thoeretical physics and chemistry per se. Today one reads von Humboldt more for the natural philosophy than for the scientific statements themselves, but in terms of page count the latter by far dominate. Thus, however piquant in its day it may have been, Kosmos has now to be seen more as a document of its times and less so as a resource for us today, hence couldn’t really be called a classic.
Von Humboldt’s Winckelmannian humanism, as revealed especially in the chapter on Geschichte der physichen Weltanschauung shows his project to aspire to more than merely to assemble an encyclopedia of knowledge about the world. For von Humboldt, indeed, Kosmos bears the imprint of a spiritual aspect, viz., the world seen as the stage on which man and nature greet one another and interact, forming a harmony which is really the quasi-religious quasi-pantheistic viewpoint he wants to communicate with his whole authorship:
Die Natur ist für die denkende Betrachtung Einheit in der Vielheit, Verbindung des Mannigfaltigen in Form und Mischung, Inbegriff der Naturdinge und Naturkräfte, als ein lebendiges Ganze. Das wichtigste Resultat des sinnigen physischen Forschens ist daher dieses: in der Mannigfaltigkeit die Einheit zu erkennen, von dem Individuellen alles zu umfassen, was die Entdeckungen der letzteren Zeitalter uns darbieten, die Einzelheiten prüfend zu sondern und doch nicht ihrer Masse zu unterliegen, der erhabenen Bestimmung des Menschen eingedenk, den Geist der Natur zu ergreifen, welcher under der Decke der Erscheinungen verhüllt liegt. Auf diesem Wege reicht unser Bestrebungen über die enge Grenze der Sinnenwelt hinaus, und es kann uns gelingen, die Natur begreifend, den rohen Stoff empirischer Anschauung gleichsam durch den Ideen zu beherrschen. [p. 10]
Je mehr aber während einer glänzenden Erweiterung aller Naturwissenschaften das Material des sicheren empirischen Wissens anwichs, desto mehr erkaltete allmälig der Trieb, das Wesen der Erscheinungen und ihre Einheit, als ein Naturganzes, durch Construction der Begriffe aus der Vernunft-Erkenntniß abzuleiten. In der uns nahen Zeit hat der mathematische Theil der Naturphilosophie sich einer großen und herrlichen Ausbildung zu erfreuen gehabt. Die Methoden und das Instrument (die Analyse) sind gleichzeitig vervollkommnet worden. Was so auf vielfachen Wegen durch sinnige Anwendung atomistischer Prämissen, durch allgemeineren und unmittelbareren Contact mit der Natur, durch das Hervorrufen und Ausbilden neuer Organe errungen ist, soll, wie im Alterthume, so auch jetzt, ein gemeinsames Gut der Menschheit, der freiesten Bearbeitung der Philosophie in ihren wechselnden Gestaltungen nicht entzogen werden. [p. 37]
Kosmos raises for us moderns the issue as to what it means to love anything at all, whether our globe or one’s wife. The medieval German minnen has long since been replaced by the modern Hochdeutsch lieben as a result presumably of Luther’s epochal intervention into Geistesgeschichte (the real meaning of which must remain a topic for another time). Nonethess, one can trace the shift from etymological clues: minnen derives from ‘to mind’, or ‘to dwell upon in one’s mind’ (cf. Luke 2:51b, καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ δɩετήρεɩ πάντα τὰ ῥήματα ἐν τῇ ϰαρδίᾳ αὐτῆς), while lieben (as with to love in English) from ‘to like’; the latter, thus, being more affective than cognitive in orientation. Vide, in connection with this contention:
Naturbeschreibungen, wiederhole ich, können scharf umgrenzt und wissenschaftlich genau sein, ohne daß ihnen darum der belebende Hauch der Einbildungskraft entzogen bleibt. Das Dichterische muß aus dem geahndeten Zusammenhange des Sinnlichen mit dem Intellectuellen, aus dem Gefühl der Allverbreitung, der gegenseitigen Begrenzung und der Einheit des Naturlebens hervorgehen. Je erhabener die Gegenstände sind, desto sorgfältiger muß der äußere Schmuck der Rede vermieden werden. Die eigentliche Wirkung eines Naturgemäldes ist in seiner Composition begründet; jede geflissentliche Anregung von Seiten dessen, der es aufstellt, kann nur störend werden. [pp. 223-224]
If only contemporary men could recover something more like von Humboldt’s way of being! Precisely such a desideratum is the objective of the Palestinian humanist and philosopher Dalia Nassar in her recent monograph Romantic Empiricism: Nature, Art and Ecology from Herder to Humboldt (Oxford University Press, 2022), which we intend to review next.
January 9, 2017
I've always been an avid reader of science popularizations, and I've read many especially in the past two years; so eventually I had to go back to one of the first, the most comprehensive, and certainly the most successful popularizations of all time -- Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos. This book is a summary of early nineteenth century science. After an introductory section giving von Humboldt's conception of science and explaining what he intends to cover and what he wants to accomplish -- not an encyclopedic collection of facts or theories but a view of the interconnections of phenomena, the first volume (the general "Weltgemalde" or "world picture") is divided into an astronomic part and a "telluric" part. The first part begins with nebulas and the galaxy, and narrows down to the stars, the solar system, the planets, comets and meteors, and then describes the Earth in its general form as a planet. The second part deals with the structure of the Earth, earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, rocks, the oceans, the atmosphere and weather, organic life, and physical anthropology. The most extensive sections are the geological ones; the biological and especially the human sections are short. I believe the second, third, and fourth volumes are more detailed accounts of astronomy and geology; he never got to the detailed views of biology and anthropology, which however are covered in many of his more specialized books. Kosmos was one of the major "best-sellers" of its time, despite its length and difficulty; it represents what the educated non-scientist could be expected to know about the sciences for most of the nineteenth century, and for that reason alone is worth reading for anyone interested in the thought of the period.
Although science was and is always changing, and any science popularization is somewhat outdated by the time it is even published (the later volumes make an effort to keep up with the latest developments, and a posthumously published fifth volume is made up entirely of such corrections and additions, along with the index to all five), von Humboldt seems curiously modern compared to many other figures of the time. The general view of astronomy here didn't change much until the time of Hubble in the 1920's; the geology was essentially (except for the Ice Ages, which had only recently been suggested about this time and might be in the later volumes) the same paradigm as what I learned in grade school -- the new view of plate tectonics didn't come until I was in high school. The biology on the other hand was superceded the year Humboldt died, with the publication of The Origin of Species, which relies on von Humboldt's discoveries in plant and animal geography for its most convincing arguments. The anthropological section, though only a few pages at the end (and censored out of the early American translations) was especially modern, as he emphasizes his belief in the unity of the human species and makes the case against racial theories with ideas that were only recovered in the 1940s and 1950s, after a century of racist anthropology: the facts that traits such as dark skin, "wooly" hair, and so forth do not vary together but separately in different groups, that various traits are a result of adaptation to the climate and other factors, that language groups and ethnic groups are not the same, and so forth. He ends up with a sharp attack on slavery, and unambiguously states that all races have the same rights to freedom.
If von Humboldt's work is worth reading, the same however cannot be said for the Kindle version. While, unlike many free or low-cost e-books, it is adequately proofread, the formatting is terrible; the original endnotes are inserted in the text without any indication of where they begin or end, so that a sentence will break off in the middle, and resume a page or two later without warning. This makes the book very confusing to read -- there are long notes on every page -- and is especially damaging in German, where verbs and separable prefixes come at the end of sentences. My view is that printed books should never have endnotes, and e-books should always have endnotes with links from the text. Given that von Humboldt was a pioneer in scientific illustrations, inventing isotherms, isoclines, etc. as well as geological sections, it is surprising that the book had no illustrations (although just as well in the Kindle version, since e-books don't generally do well with illustrations -- the one chart included here was cut off at the end.) Apparently there was an atlas published by someone else at the same time which contained illustrative material for the book.
I will add my reviews for the subsequent volumes as I finish them.
-------------------------------------------------------
Volume 2
The second volume of Humboldt's Kosmos, this was not what I expected it to be (a more detailed version of the general sketch in the first volume); it was actually a history of the development of overall views of the physical world, from the time of the early Greeks to the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first few chapters deal with the view of the world as expressed in art and literature (and emphasize the Indian over the European works); the rest deals with the major events which changed humanity's view of the Cosmos: the discovery of the Black Sea, the discovery of the Indian Ocean, the expeditions of Alexander, the Roman Empire, the development of Arab science, the discovery of America, and the scientific revolution from Copernicus to Newton. This is one of the most interesting histories of science I have read, despite its age; especially impressive in its relative freedom from Eurocentrism -- he considers the modern scientific worldview to be essentially a product of the Arab world. As with the first volume, this was very hard to read due to the poor formatting of the Kindle edition; and despite my enjoyment of the book I think I will skip the third and fourth volumes until either Amazon fixes the Kindle version or I manage to find a print edition.
Although science was and is always changing, and any science popularization is somewhat outdated by the time it is even published (the later volumes make an effort to keep up with the latest developments, and a posthumously published fifth volume is made up entirely of such corrections and additions, along with the index to all five), von Humboldt seems curiously modern compared to many other figures of the time. The general view of astronomy here didn't change much until the time of Hubble in the 1920's; the geology was essentially (except for the Ice Ages, which had only recently been suggested about this time and might be in the later volumes) the same paradigm as what I learned in grade school -- the new view of plate tectonics didn't come until I was in high school. The biology on the other hand was superceded the year Humboldt died, with the publication of The Origin of Species, which relies on von Humboldt's discoveries in plant and animal geography for its most convincing arguments. The anthropological section, though only a few pages at the end (and censored out of the early American translations) was especially modern, as he emphasizes his belief in the unity of the human species and makes the case against racial theories with ideas that were only recovered in the 1940s and 1950s, after a century of racist anthropology: the facts that traits such as dark skin, "wooly" hair, and so forth do not vary together but separately in different groups, that various traits are a result of adaptation to the climate and other factors, that language groups and ethnic groups are not the same, and so forth. He ends up with a sharp attack on slavery, and unambiguously states that all races have the same rights to freedom.
If von Humboldt's work is worth reading, the same however cannot be said for the Kindle version. While, unlike many free or low-cost e-books, it is adequately proofread, the formatting is terrible; the original endnotes are inserted in the text without any indication of where they begin or end, so that a sentence will break off in the middle, and resume a page or two later without warning. This makes the book very confusing to read -- there are long notes on every page -- and is especially damaging in German, where verbs and separable prefixes come at the end of sentences. My view is that printed books should never have endnotes, and e-books should always have endnotes with links from the text. Given that von Humboldt was a pioneer in scientific illustrations, inventing isotherms, isoclines, etc. as well as geological sections, it is surprising that the book had no illustrations (although just as well in the Kindle version, since e-books don't generally do well with illustrations -- the one chart included here was cut off at the end.) Apparently there was an atlas published by someone else at the same time which contained illustrative material for the book.
I will add my reviews for the subsequent volumes as I finish them.
-------------------------------------------------------
Volume 2
The second volume of Humboldt's Kosmos, this was not what I expected it to be (a more detailed version of the general sketch in the first volume); it was actually a history of the development of overall views of the physical world, from the time of the early Greeks to the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first few chapters deal with the view of the world as expressed in art and literature (and emphasize the Indian over the European works); the rest deals with the major events which changed humanity's view of the Cosmos: the discovery of the Black Sea, the discovery of the Indian Ocean, the expeditions of Alexander, the Roman Empire, the development of Arab science, the discovery of America, and the scientific revolution from Copernicus to Newton. This is one of the most interesting histories of science I have read, despite its age; especially impressive in its relative freedom from Eurocentrism -- he considers the modern scientific worldview to be essentially a product of the Arab world. As with the first volume, this was very hard to read due to the poor formatting of the Kindle edition; and despite my enjoyment of the book I think I will skip the third and fourth volumes until either Amazon fixes the Kindle version or I manage to find a print edition.
October 4, 2024
Humboldt, erster populärwissenschaftler, meine maus<3
Crazy dass schon so viel von unserem Sonnensystem und dem Universum bekannt war bevor es überhaupt menschengemachte Maschinen im All gab? Like woher wussten sie die Entfernung von verschieden Sternen von der Erde? (rhetorische Frage; wird im Buch erklärt - hab ich nciht verstanden). Jedenfalls wild dass so viel über Himmel und Sterne erforscht wurde bevor man wusste, dass es dinosaurier auf Erde gab (1824 wurde der erste Dino beschrieben [quelle: wikipedia], auch wenn das 3 Jahre vor den Vorträgen war, kamen dinos nicht in diesen vor, also versteht ihr meinen Punkt? Idk ist crazy in meinen Augen).
Punkte abgezogen weil das Kapitel über "Menschenrassen" sehr uncomfortable war und die meisten Infos heutzutage Allgemeinwissen sind. (und der eurozentrismus oder eher Euroüberlegenheit - "oh die alten Griechen waren das erste und einzige kultivierte Volk und die Ägypter und Inder und pp gab es zwar aber die hatten keine Ahnung von irgendwas" (obwohl sie schon vor den Griechen wissenschaftliche Entdeckungen gemacht haben also idk was er meint. Die Römer haben es nichtmal geschafft von selbst darauf zu kommen dass das Konzept von 'nichts' (null) existiert likeeeee))
Crazy dass schon so viel von unserem Sonnensystem und dem Universum bekannt war bevor es überhaupt menschengemachte Maschinen im All gab? Like woher wussten sie die Entfernung von verschieden Sternen von der Erde? (rhetorische Frage; wird im Buch erklärt - hab ich nciht verstanden). Jedenfalls wild dass so viel über Himmel und Sterne erforscht wurde bevor man wusste, dass es dinosaurier auf Erde gab (1824 wurde der erste Dino beschrieben [quelle: wikipedia], auch wenn das 3 Jahre vor den Vorträgen war, kamen dinos nicht in diesen vor, also versteht ihr meinen Punkt? Idk ist crazy in meinen Augen).
Punkte abgezogen weil das Kapitel über "Menschenrassen" sehr uncomfortable war und die meisten Infos heutzutage Allgemeinwissen sind. (und der eurozentrismus oder eher Euroüberlegenheit - "oh die alten Griechen waren das erste und einzige kultivierte Volk und die Ägypter und Inder und pp gab es zwar aber die hatten keine Ahnung von irgendwas" (obwohl sie schon vor den Griechen wissenschaftliche Entdeckungen gemacht haben also idk was er meint. Die Römer haben es nichtmal geschafft von selbst darauf zu kommen dass das Konzept von 'nichts' (null) existiert likeeeee))
April 8, 2025
This is a review of the Spanish edition of 2011 by publisher Los libros de la Catarata, which should be ashamed of themselves for publishing such a relevant work with plenty of erratum. Unforgivable. The book itself grouped together the 5 volumes of Cosmos into a single one.
With Cosmos, renown explorer and scholar Alexander von Humboldt strived to present a unified vision of nature, combining scientific knowledge from various fields to show how everything in the universe is interconnected. He wanted to bridge the gap between the sciences and the humanities, making complex scientific ideas accessible to a broader audience. In a way, Von Humboldt is a sort of a precursor to cybernetic thinking.
The areas he covered in this work are as follows:
Volume 1 (1845): Overview of the physical universe and Humboldt's vision of nature as an interconnected whole; introduces the unity of nature and the relationship between the natural world and human perception.
Volume 2 (1847): Exploration of the methods and history of scientific discovery; focuses on the development of the natural sciences and the importance of observation and measurement.
Volume 3 (1850): Detailed discussions of specific sidereal phenomena, including astronomy, Earth sciences, and atmospheric physics.
Volume 4 (1858): Scientific analysis of planet Earth, particularly in geology, plant geography, and terrestrial magnetism.
Volume 5 (1862, posthumous): Historical survey of humanity’s efforts to understand the universe, focusing on cosmological ideas through time—from ancient civilizations to modern astronomy.
Sadly for myself, this book felt short of expectations. It is not an easy read for someone who may not be familiarized with basic concepts in astronomy, geology, geography or physics. While there are parts that I found more inspiring and engaging, a lot of times reading it felt like going through a dense amount if data that made for a dry as parchment read. Lastly, the biggest issue for me was the vast amount of erratum in this book: spelling mistakes, typographical errors and even duplication of lines in paragraphs that made me suspect the translation was a machine job that was copy pasted into the manuscript. All in all, a very unprofessional editing job done here. I do wonder if part of my dissatisfaction was due to such errors and the uninspiring prose in the translation.
While some of the content in the book has been rendered inaccurate after 200 years of science advancement, from a historiographical point of view there's value in Cosmos as a snapshot of what was known in the natural sciences at a point of time. Although I believe that any reader wanting to tackle this book would do well in dusting off his chops in geography, astronomy and physics if (s)he is to make the most of the reading experience.
With Cosmos, renown explorer and scholar Alexander von Humboldt strived to present a unified vision of nature, combining scientific knowledge from various fields to show how everything in the universe is interconnected. He wanted to bridge the gap between the sciences and the humanities, making complex scientific ideas accessible to a broader audience. In a way, Von Humboldt is a sort of a precursor to cybernetic thinking.
The areas he covered in this work are as follows:
Volume 1 (1845): Overview of the physical universe and Humboldt's vision of nature as an interconnected whole; introduces the unity of nature and the relationship between the natural world and human perception.
Volume 2 (1847): Exploration of the methods and history of scientific discovery; focuses on the development of the natural sciences and the importance of observation and measurement.
Volume 3 (1850): Detailed discussions of specific sidereal phenomena, including astronomy, Earth sciences, and atmospheric physics.
Volume 4 (1858): Scientific analysis of planet Earth, particularly in geology, plant geography, and terrestrial magnetism.
Volume 5 (1862, posthumous): Historical survey of humanity’s efforts to understand the universe, focusing on cosmological ideas through time—from ancient civilizations to modern astronomy.
Sadly for myself, this book felt short of expectations. It is not an easy read for someone who may not be familiarized with basic concepts in astronomy, geology, geography or physics. While there are parts that I found more inspiring and engaging, a lot of times reading it felt like going through a dense amount if data that made for a dry as parchment read. Lastly, the biggest issue for me was the vast amount of erratum in this book: spelling mistakes, typographical errors and even duplication of lines in paragraphs that made me suspect the translation was a machine job that was copy pasted into the manuscript. All in all, a very unprofessional editing job done here. I do wonder if part of my dissatisfaction was due to such errors and the uninspiring prose in the translation.
While some of the content in the book has been rendered inaccurate after 200 years of science advancement, from a historiographical point of view there's value in Cosmos as a snapshot of what was known in the natural sciences at a point of time. Although I believe that any reader wanting to tackle this book would do well in dusting off his chops in geography, astronomy and physics if (s)he is to make the most of the reading experience.
September 17, 2020
A must read to partially understand the genius of A.v.H. His drive to discover and describe the world in this beautiful nature paired with the evil european colonials is a real historical document. Makes you want to know even more about man.
September 29, 2024
A BOOK SUMMARIZING "THE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE" (WITHOUT ANY MENTION OF GOD)
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, and explorer, whose work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.
He wrote in his Preface to this 1845 book, "Travels... could not fail to encourage the natural tendency of my mind toward a generalization of views, and to encourage me to attempt, in a special work, to treat of the knowledge which we at present possess, regarding the sidereal and terrestrial phenomena of the Cosmos in their empirical relations... The hitherto undefined idea of a physical geography has thus, by an extended and perhaps too boldly imagined plan, been comprehended under the idea of a physical description of the universe, embracing all created things in the regions of space and in the earth...
"I have endeavored to show... that a certain degree of scientific completeness in the treatment of individual facts is not wholly incompatible with a picturesque animation of style... I undertook... to deliver a course of lectures on the physical description of the universe... My lectures were given extemporaneously..." (Pg. 7-9)
He asserts, "Nature considered rationally, that is to say, submitted to the process of thought, is a unity in diversity of phenomena; a harmony, a blending together all created things, however dissimilar in form and attributes; one great whole... animated by the breath of life." (Pg. 24)
He adds, "We may here trace the revelation of a bond of union, linking together the visible world and that higher spiritual world which escapes the grasp of the senses. The two become unconsciously blended together, developing in the mind of man... independently of the aid of observation, the first germ of a Philosophy of Nature." (Pg. 37)
He observes, "A philosophical study of nature strives ever to elevate itself above the narrow requirements of mere natural description, and does not consist... in the mere accumulation of isolated facts. The inquiring and active spirit of man must be suffered to pass from the present to the past, to conjecture all that can not yet be known with certainty, and still to dwell with pleasure on the ancient myths of geognosy [knowledge of the earth] which are presented to us under so many various forms." (Pg. 237)
He suggests, "the empirical domain of objective contemplation, and the delineation of our planet in its present condition, do not include a consideration of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and existence. A cosmical history of our universe... has... necessarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a history of organisms... The natural tendency of the human mind involuntarily prompts us to follow the physical phenomena of the Earth, through all their varied series, until we reach the final stage of the morphological evolution of vegetable forms, and the self-determining powers of motion in animal organisms. And is it by these links that the geography of organic beings... is connected with the delineation of the inorganic phenomena of our terrestrial globe." (Pg. 339-341)
He concludes, "Thus deeply rooted in the innermost nature of man, and even enjoined upon him by his highest tendencies, the recognition of the bond of humanity becomes one of the noblest leading principles in the history of mankind." (Pg. 359)
This book will interest those studying the history of scientific thought.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, and explorer, whose work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.
He wrote in his Preface to this 1845 book, "Travels... could not fail to encourage the natural tendency of my mind toward a generalization of views, and to encourage me to attempt, in a special work, to treat of the knowledge which we at present possess, regarding the sidereal and terrestrial phenomena of the Cosmos in their empirical relations... The hitherto undefined idea of a physical geography has thus, by an extended and perhaps too boldly imagined plan, been comprehended under the idea of a physical description of the universe, embracing all created things in the regions of space and in the earth...
"I have endeavored to show... that a certain degree of scientific completeness in the treatment of individual facts is not wholly incompatible with a picturesque animation of style... I undertook... to deliver a course of lectures on the physical description of the universe... My lectures were given extemporaneously..." (Pg. 7-9)
He asserts, "Nature considered rationally, that is to say, submitted to the process of thought, is a unity in diversity of phenomena; a harmony, a blending together all created things, however dissimilar in form and attributes; one great whole... animated by the breath of life." (Pg. 24)
He adds, "We may here trace the revelation of a bond of union, linking together the visible world and that higher spiritual world which escapes the grasp of the senses. The two become unconsciously blended together, developing in the mind of man... independently of the aid of observation, the first germ of a Philosophy of Nature." (Pg. 37)
He observes, "A philosophical study of nature strives ever to elevate itself above the narrow requirements of mere natural description, and does not consist... in the mere accumulation of isolated facts. The inquiring and active spirit of man must be suffered to pass from the present to the past, to conjecture all that can not yet be known with certainty, and still to dwell with pleasure on the ancient myths of geognosy [knowledge of the earth] which are presented to us under so many various forms." (Pg. 237)
He suggests, "the empirical domain of objective contemplation, and the delineation of our planet in its present condition, do not include a consideration of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and existence. A cosmical history of our universe... has... necessarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a history of organisms... The natural tendency of the human mind involuntarily prompts us to follow the physical phenomena of the Earth, through all their varied series, until we reach the final stage of the morphological evolution of vegetable forms, and the self-determining powers of motion in animal organisms. And is it by these links that the geography of organic beings... is connected with the delineation of the inorganic phenomena of our terrestrial globe." (Pg. 339-341)
He concludes, "Thus deeply rooted in the innermost nature of man, and even enjoined upon him by his highest tendencies, the recognition of the bond of humanity becomes one of the noblest leading principles in the history of mankind." (Pg. 359)
This book will interest those studying the history of scientific thought.
December 4, 2009
Hervorragender Reprint dieses Klassikers von Alexander von Humboldts aus dem 19. Jahrhunderts.
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