Unterwegs zum Weltbewußtsein. Alexander von Humboldts Wissenschaftsverständnis und die Entstehung einer ethisch fundierten Weltanschauung

Abstract

Article in German, Abstracts in English and Spanish. Towards Global Consciousness. Alexander von Humboldt's Conception of Science and the emerging ethical Weltanschauung. In the context of recent reflections upon global ethics (Hans Küng), global democracy (Otfried Höffe) and a new cultural situation after the end of the Cold War (Clifford Geertz), Alexander von Humboldt's concept of global consciousness (Weltbewußtsein) marks a decisive point in the ungoing process of the construction of a new ethics of globalization. This article tries to show how Humboldt's transdisciplinary and intercultural conception of sience as WorldWideWeb integrates Kant's philosophical visions of global political institutions and formulates a critique of the non-empirical foundations of Hegel's teleological Weltanschauung. From his Visions of Nature and his Personal Narrative to his Cosmos, Humboldt's theory and practice of science help us to find a new ethos and new answers to the contemporary questions of divergent modernities.

Keywords

• Alexander von Humboldt
• Ottmar Ette
• Global Consciousness
• Hans Küng
• Clifford Geertz
• Otfried Höffe