A Comparative study on the onto-epistemological presuppositions in landscape descriptions of romantics and naturalists

Abstract

Two facts are noteworthy in standard historiography on the perception and description of nature: (a) Apart from occasional exceptions (Hard 1970), there is no conceptual analysis of the onto-epistemological presuppositions implicit in the texts while it is usually carried out in studies of the concept of nature focused on philosophical and scientific theories. (b) The prevalence of the analysis of descriptions made in poetic contexts, excluding descriptions of natural scenery contained in the work of prominent naturalists. However, both types are elements of the same culture that shape the world picture of their own epoch. A comparative conceptual analysis of texts belonging to both areas, made in search of their onto-epistemological commitments, would be relevant within a philosophical theory about world pictures and their cultural role (Sellars 1963).