Life Forms in the Thinking of the Long Eighteenth Century is a unique reappraisal of Enlightenment thought on nature, biology, and the organic world.

Introduction

Part I: History as a Life Form
1. Martin Gierl, “Johann Christoph Gatterer and History as Science”
2. Avi Lifshitz, “An Epicurean Democracy in Language: The volte face in Johann David Michaelis’s Early Career”
3. John Zammito, “From Vital Materialism to Naturphilosophie: The Question of Historical Continuity”

Part II: Translations of Vitalism
4. Keith Baker, “Was Marat a Vitalist?”
5. Frédéric Ogée, “‘That infinite variety of human forms’: The New Epistemology, Modern Identity, and the English”
6. Kris Pangburn, “Vitalist Natural Philosophy in the Political Thought of John Stuart Mill and Wilhelm von Humboldt”

Part III: Esotericism and Enlightenment
7. Annette Graczyk, “Constructions of Life Forms in Lavater’s Physiognomy”
8. Renko Geffarth, “The Preaching Philosopher: Andreas Weber (1718-1781): Between Wolffian Philosophy and Heterodox Theology”
9. Clorinda Donato, “Esoteric Reason and Occult Science: Seamless Pursuits in the Work and Networks of Raimondo di Sangro, the Prince of San Severo”
10. Helena Rosenblatt, “The Liberal Mysticism of Madame de Staél”

Edited by Keith Michael Baker and Jenna M. Gibbs