The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science And Technology After Napoleon

Romanticism is described as an intellectual movement placing a holistic focus on systems rather than individual elements, celebrating self-understanding, expression of emotion, and aesthetics, and promoting unity between man and nature. Typically, romanticism is considered antithetical to the mechanistic view of the late 18th Century which emphasizes reason, determinism, and believes a system’s activities are based on its individual parts, rather than comprehensively. In the opening chapter, Tresch recounts prominent philosophical theories to later bout the idea that romanticism and mechanism are mutually exclusive. Rather, Tresch’s central argument in "The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science and Technology after Napoleon", considers romanticism and mechanism in unison, suggesting romanticism complements mechanical reason, aiding in the advancement of technology, rather than opposing it. Tresch explores the emergence of dynamic systems such as batteries, steam engines, and electrical instruments in their ability to change and interact with the surrounding environment, "the kinds of machines we use are bound
As aforementioned, the author extensively explains the confines of romanticism and mechanism, yet; fails to define considerations of science in the era. This lack of societal context is minor, however; the book is centered in a time period where a shift in perception from natural philosophy where nature was observed and theorized, to contemporary science, where experiments were primarily used to prove a hypothesis. As Tresch states in his introduction, industrialization was a proponent of the transition and as it occurred later in France, disputes on what the technical definition of a scientific consideration may arise and convolute