Experiencing the World: Georg Forster’s Natural, Political and Revolutionary Thought (Great Minds Postdoctoral Fellowship)
This research project recovers Georg Forster’s natural, political and revolutionary thought. The unifying theme of Georg Forster (1754-1794) can be conceptualised as 'experiencing the world'. Contrary to many of his rationalistic contemporaries, Forster sees science and politics as activities based on experience. His own experience during the second circumnavigation of the globe by Captain Cook lastingly influenced Forster’s thought. The ways in which nature and human sociality are experienced influence normative and political views. The research project reconstructs Forster’s experiences of travel and investigates his 'surplus' of experience, which eventually leads him to support the ideal of the French Revolution in the Republic of Mainz (1792-1793). Thus, this project combines approaches from political theory, intellectual history and the history of international political thought.
