Contents -- Illustrations -- Frontispiece, Flora, goddess of flowers -- 1.1. The vertebrate archetype, from Carl Gustav Carus, Von den Ur-Theilen des Knochen und Schalengerustes -- 2.1. Friedrich Schlegel -- 2.2. Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) -- 2.3. Sophie von Kühn -- 2.4. The freedom tree -- 2.5. Caroline Michaelis Böhmer Schlegel Schelling -- 2.6. August Wilhelm Schlegel -- 2.7 Johann Gottlieb Fichte -- 2.8. Friedrich Schlegel -- 2.9. Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher -- 3.1. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling -- 3.2. Friedrich Hölderlin -- 3.3. Auguste Böhmer -- 4.1. Friedrich Schelling -- 5.1. Frontispiece to the publication of Goethe's Faust, Ein Fragment -- 5.2. Albrecht von Haller -- 5.3. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach -- 5.4. Johann Gottfried Herder -- 5.5. Immanuel Kant -- 7.1. Johann Christian Reil -- 7.2. Katzenclavier, or cat-piano -- 7.3. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland -- 8.1. Erasmus Darwin -- A.1. Plate from Luigi Galvani, De viribus electricitatis -- A.2. Plate from Alexander von Humboldt, Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser -- 10.1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- 10.2. Carl August, duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach -- 10.3. Charlotte von Stein -- 10.4. Apartments of Charlotte von Stein -- 10.5. The river Ilm -- 10.6. Justus Christian Loder -- 10.7. Anatomieturm in Jena -- 10.8. Illustration of the human intermaxillary bone -- 10.9. Goethe in apartment in Rome -- 10.10. Emma Lyon -- 10.11. Anatomy sketch by Goethe -- 11.1. Christiane Vulpius -- 11.2. Goethe's house on Der Frauenplan -- 11.3. Gardens at the rear of Goethe's house on Der Frauenplan -- 11.4. Megatherium drawn by D'Alton -- 11.5. Lorenz Oken -- 11.6. Bust of Oken in Jena -- 12.1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- 12.2. Dedication page to Goethe by Alexander von Humboldt -- 14.1. Charles Darwin -- 14.2. Richard Owen.

14.3. Richard Owen's illustration of the vertebrate archetype -- 14.4. Charles Darwin -- 14.5. Charles Darwin -- Plates -- Plate 1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the Roman Campagna -- Plate 2. Henriette Herz -- Plate 3. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- Plate 4. Friedrich Schiller -- Plate 5. Alexander von Humboldt -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- 1 Introduction: A Most Happy Encounter -- The Historical Meaning of Naturphilosophie and Romantic Biology -- Part One: The Early Romantic Movement in Literature, Philosophy, and Science -- 2 The Early Romantic Movement -- Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel -- Novalis: The Romantic Personality -- Caroline Böhmer and the Mainz Revolution -- The Schlegels in Jena: The Break with Schiller and the Politics of Romanticism -- Fichte, the Philosopher of Freedom -- The Salons of Berlin -- Friedrich Schleiermacher: The Poetics and Erotics of Religion -- Friedrich Schlegel's Aesthetic Theory -- 3 Schelling: The Poetry of Nature -- Schelling's Early Life -- Naturphilosophie -- Schelling in Jena -- Transcendental Idealism and Poetic Construction -- Schelling's Affair with Caroline and the Tragedy of Auguste -- Schelling's Identity Philosophy -- 4 Denouement: Farewell to Jena -- The Meaning of Romanticism -- Part Two: Scientific Foundations of the Romantic Conception of Life -- 5 Early Theories of Development: Blumenbach and Kant -- Embryology and Theories of Descent in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- Blumenbach's Theory of the Bildungstrieb -- Kant's Theory of Biological Explanation -- 6 Kielmeyer and the Organic Powers of Nature -- Lecture on Organic Forces -- Theory of Species Origin and Transformation -- Critique of Kant and the Idealists -- 7 Johann Christian Reil's Romantic Theories of Life and Mind, or Rhapsodies on a Cat-Piano -- Early Training and Practice -- Lebenskraft -- Studies of Mental Illness.

The Romantic Movement in Halle -- The Romantic Naturphilosoph -- Final Years: War and Romance -- 8 Schelling's Dynamic Evolutionism -- Biological Treatises -- Critical Analysis of the Biological Theories of Contemporaries -- Nature as a Dynamically Shifting Balance of Forces -- Theory of Dynamic Evolution -- 9 Conclusion: Mechanism, Teleology, and Evolution -- Appendix: Theories of Irritability, Sensibility, and Vital Force from Haller to Humboldt -- Part Three: Goethe, a Genius for Poetry, Morphology, and Women -- 10 The Erotic Authority of Nature -- Growing Up in Frankfurt -- University Education -- The Law, Herder, and Lotte -- The Weimar Councillor and the Frustrated Lover -- The Science of Goethe's First Weimar Period -- The Unity of Biological Nature: Goethe's Discovery of the Zwischenkiefer in Human Beings -- The Impact of Spinoza -- Goethe's Italian Journey: Art, Nature, and the Female -- Conclusion -- 11 Goethe's Scienti.c Revolution -- Homecoming -- The Foundations of Morphology -- Friendship with Schiller and Induction into the Kantian Philosophy -- The Science of Morphology -- The Romantic Circle and Schelling -- Zur Morphologie -- The Vertebral Theory of the Skull: Goethe's Dispute with Oken and the Truth of Memory -- 12 Conclusion: The History of a Life in Art and Science -- Part Four: Epilogue -- 13 The Romantic Conception of Life -- 14 Darwin's Romantic Biology -- The Romantic Movement -- Darwin's Romantic Conception of Nature -- Romantic Nature in the Origin of Species -- Darwin's Theory of Morals -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.