Essay Review: Holistic Theories of Mind in Early Twentieth-Century Germany,Reenchanted Science: Holism in German Culture from Wilhelm II to Hitler,Gestalt Psychology in German Culture,1890–1967: Holism and the Quest for Objectivity

For just a few examples among many, see Hein Hilde , “The endurance of the mechanism–vitalism controversy”, Journal of the history of biology, v (1972), 159–88; Geison G. L. , “The protoplasmic theory of life and the vitalist–mechanist debate”, Isis, lx (1969), 273–92; Galaty David , “The philosophical basis of mid-19th century German reductionism”, Journal of the history of medicine, xxix (1974), 295–316; Mendelsohn Everett , “Revolution and reduction: The sociology of methodological and philosophical concerns in 19th century biology”, in Elkana Y. (ed.), The interaction between science and philosophy (Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1974); Haraway Donna J. , Crystals, fabrics and fields: Metaphors of organicism in 20th century developmental biology (New Haven, Conn., 1976).

Roll-Hansen Nils , “E. S. Russell and J. H. Woodger: The failure of two 20th century opponents of mechanistic biology”, Journal of the history of biology, xvii (1984), 399–428; Horder T. J. Weindling Paul , “Hans Spemann and the organiser”, in Horder T. J. (eds), A history of embryology (Cambridge, 1985), 183–242; Cross Stephen J. Albury W. R. , “W. B. Cannon, L. J. Henderson and the organic analogy”, Osiris, n.s., iii (1987), 165–92; Sturdy Steve , “Biology as social theory: J. S. Haldane and physiological regulation”, The British journal for the history of science, xxi (1988), 315–40; Abir-Am Pnina G. , “The philosophical background of Joseph Needham's work in chemical embryology”, in Gilbert Scott (ed.), A conceptual history of modern embryology (Baltimore, 1991), 159–80; Kingsland Sharon E. , “Toward a natural history of the human psyche: Charles Manning Child, Charles Judson Herrick, and the dynamic view of the individual at the University of Chicago”, in Benson Keith R. (eds), The expansion of American biology (New Brunswick, NJ, 1991), 195–230.

It may be no accident that historians' interest in “science and Romanticism” appears to have declined and reemerged over the same period. For a recent review of the literature see Levere Trevor , “Romanticism, natural philosophy, and the sciences: A review and bibliographic essay”, Perspectives on science, iv (1997), 463–88.

Ringer Fritz K. , The decline of the German mandarins: The German academic community, 1890–1933 (Cambridge, Mass., 1969). See also Ringer's bibliography for references to standard histories of German cultural criticism c. 1900 by Mosse George Stern Fritz Hughes H. Stuart .

The classic work is Forman Paul , “Weimar culture, causality, and quantum theory, 1918–1927: Adaptation by German physicists and mathematicians to a hostile intellectual environment”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, iii (1971), 1–115. More recently see Harwood Jonathan , Styles of scientific thought: The German genetics community, 1900–1933 (Chicago, 1993).

Weindling Paul , Darwinism and Social Darwinism in Imperial Germany: The contribution of the cell biologist, Oscar Hertwig (1849–1922) (Stuttgart, 1991); on Schaxel see Hopwood Nick , “Biology between university and proletariat: The making of a red professor”, History of science, xxxv (1997), 367–424. For a general discussion of this issue, see pp. 365–7 in Harwood Jonathan , “Weimar culture and biological theory: A study of Richard Woltereck (1877–1944)”, ibid., xxxiv (1996), 347–77.

This is how I read the studies by Forman (“Weimar culture”) and Mehrtens Herbert : Moderne, Sprache, Mathematik: Eine Geschichte des Streits um die Grundlagen der Disziplin und des Subjekts formaler Systeme (Frankfurt, 1990).

Until just recently: Several of the papers in a new collection deal with holistic concepts in British and American medical sciences. See Lawrence Christopher Weisz George (eds), Greater than the parts: Holism in biomedicine, 1920–1950 (Oxford, 1998).

Lawrence Weisz , (eds), Greater than the parts ; for an early statement of this thesis see Lawrence Christopher , “Incommunicable knowledge: Science, technology and the clinical art in Britain, 1850–1914”, Journal of contemporary history, xx (1985), 503–20, esp. pp. 512–13.