The Halle Orphanage as scientific community : observation, eclecticism, and pietism in the early Enlightenment

Founded around 1700 by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists, the Halle Orphanage became the institutional headquarters of a universal seminar that still stands largely intact today. It was the base of an educational, charitable, and scientific community and consisted of an elite school for the sons of noblemen; schools for the sons of artisans, soldiers, and preachers; a hospital; an apothecary; a bookshop; a botanical garden; and a cabinet of curiosity containing architectural models, __naturalia__, and scientific instruments. Yet, its reputation as a Pietist enclave inhabited largely by young people has prevented the organization from being taken seriously as a kind of scientific academy—even though, Kelly Joan Whitmer shows, this is precisely what it was. __The Halle Orphanage as Scientific Community__ calls into question a long-standing tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment, arguing that these tendencies have drawn attention away from what was actually going on inside the orphanage. Whitmer shows how the orphanage’s identity as a scientific community hinged on its promotion of philosophical eclecticism as a tool for assimilating perspectives and observations and working to perfect one’s abilities to observe methodically. Because of the link between eclecticism and observation, Whitmer reveals, those teaching and training in Halle’s Orphanage contributed to the transformation of scientific observation and its related activities in this period. Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists in 1695, this Orphanage became the showplace of a “universal seminar” that was affiliated with the newly founded University of Halle and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, forged lasting connections with Tsar Peter the Great and later became the headquarters of the world’s first Protestant mission to India. Yet, due to its reputation as a ‘Pietist’ enclave inhabited mainly by young people, the Orphanage has not been taken seriously as a scientific community. Using a variety of underutilized materials from the organization’s archive, Observing shows how those involved as teachers and pupils refined a range of experimental and observational procedures using material models and instruments and endeavoured to turn eclecticism into a scientific methodology. It calls into question a longstanding tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment and situates the Orphanage within an ambitious series of schemes for social and educational reform designed to confront the unfriendly culture of disputation still associated with German universities. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his friend, mathematician E. W. von Tschirnhaus, produced some of these schemes and considered the founding of Halle’s Orphanage to be in step with their efforts to promote a new culture of public science centred on the school, wherein cadres of skilled scientific observers pursued collaborative research immersed an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect "Founded around 1700 by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists, the Halle Orphanage became the institutional headquarters of a universal seminar that still stands largely intact today. It was the base of an educational, charitable, and scientific community and consisted of an elite school for the sons of noblemen; schools for the sons of artisans, soldiers, and preachers; a hospital; an apothecary; a bookshop; a botanical garden; and a cabinet of curiosity containing architectural models, naturalia, and scientific instruments. Yet, its reputation as a Pietist enclave inhabited largely by young people has prevented the organization from being taken seriously as a kind of scientific academy—even though, Kelly Joan Whitmer shows, this is precisely what it was. The Halle Orphanage as Scientific Community calls into question a long-standing tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment, arguing that these tendencies have drawn attention away from what was actually going on inside the orphanage. Whitmer shows how the orphanage’s identity as a scientific community hinged on its promotion of philosophical eclecticism as a tool for assimilating perspectives and observations and working to perfect one’s abilities to observe methodically. Because of the link between eclecticism and observation, Whitmer reveals, those teaching and training in Halle’s Orphanage contributed to the transformation of scientific observation and its related activities in this period."--Amazon.com Founded around 1700 by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists, the Halle Orphanage became the institutional headquarters of a universal seminar that still stands largely intact today. It was the base of an educational, charitable, and scientific community and consisted of an elite school for the sons of noblemen. Yet, its reputation as a Pietist enclave inhabited largely by young people has prevented the organisation from being taken seriously as a kind of scientific academy - even though, Kelly Joan Whitmer shows, this is precisely what it was. This book calls into question a long-standing tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment, arguing that these tendencies have drawn attention away from what was actually going on inside the orphanage Introducing the orphanage Building a scientific community Negotiating the Irenical turn Models and conciliatory seeing An observator and his instrument Extending the orphanage.