While there is no definitive way to determine if the Prussian polymath Alexander von Humbolt was truly the “last person who knew everything,” it is an appellation that has been justifiably used in reference to him sufficiently often to secure him a place in the finals of such a contest. Natural and moral philosopher, geographer, world traveler, prolific author, von Humbolt counted among his friends and correspondents Goethe, Schiller, Thomas Jefferson, Aimé Bonpland, John Fraser, Caspar Wistar, Benjamin Smith Barton, Benjamin Rush, and a host of others that comprise a veritable who’s who of the great intellectuals and natural philosophers of his age. And from his widely ranging studies, explorations, and experiments, as well as his extensive and equally broad circle of the greatest minds in the world with whom to exchange and discuss ideas and discoveries, von Humboldt developed and practiced a method of enquiry that was truly catholic both in what was brought to it and the remarkable results obtained from it.
In Climate Change on Mountains; Reviving Humboldt’s Approach to Science, Dr. Olivier Dangles, Directeur de Recherche at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), presents an exploration of von Humboldt and his humanist, interdisciplinary approach to the study of the natural world. To be sure, in our present age of “publish or perish” driven hyper-specialization, such an approach may strike some as antiquated and no longer applicable, or even feasible; however in applying what von Humboldt discovered about mountains and their climactic layers, and particularly how he did so, Dr. Dangles finds much of value in both to his own studies into the ecological effects of climate change in the tropical Andes.
And what’s more, Dr. Dangles presents the argument that undertaking scientific research with such a broad-perspective, humanist approach as was employed by von Humboldt, and many others among the natural philosophers and naturalists of previous centuries, retains the humanity of the undertaking itself. Furthermore, such a humanist approach to the communication of discoveries made from research and explorations helps to make the receiving audience more likely to be interested in them and perhaps even to inspire a desire on their part to learn more. To say that such is a highly desirable result in our lamentably science-skeptical present age is even still to understate the matter significantly. This is truly a most welcome book to the literature of its subjects indeed.
