Problemgeschichte in Metaphern

Am Beispiel der Elektrizitätslehre um 1800

Abstract

In the late 18th century, scientific concepts of electricity expand from physics to physiology and psychology, in metaphorical form even into the general vocabulary used to communicate new notions of feelings, especially regarding artistic inspiration and love. This trend may be explained by the common prospect that electricity would fulfill major promises of the Enlightenment and help to resolve inherent conceptual tensions in anthropology and natural philosophy (connections of singular phenomena and the whole of nature, organic and anorganic nature, matter and spirit). This historical example showcases the general capacity of metaphors in terms of epoch-specific ‘problems’: they can adapt the vocabulary to new ‘problematic’ constellations, imply ways to ‘resolve’ them, participate in building new models, contextualize and moderate problems, but also escalate and reinforce them. Due to these qualities possessed of metaphors, but often exclusively awarded to literary texts, the ‘metaphorological’ approach may methodologically deepen and complement literary studies of epoch-specific ‘problems’.