Introducing the Orphanage
Introducing the Orphanage
The Introduction offers a virtual tour of the Halle Orphanage using an account of King Friedrich I’s visit to the ensemble on October 4th, 1720. It provides readers with an accessible way into to the historiographies of Pietism and Enlightenment, including a discussion of Halle Pietists’ interest in philanthropîa and a brief account of the banishment of Christian Wolff from the city in 1723. This event became a major public controversy that led to a widespread tendency to view Pietist theologians as “anti-reason” or “anti-Enlightenment” by the 1730s and 40s. Over the years, it has tended to draw attention away from what was actually going on inside of the Orphanage, including administrators’ early efforts to collaborate with the period’s leading public intellectuals in the interest of constructing a scientific community. The introduction concludes with a discussion of the book’s central contribution to the history of science, including an emerging “history of scientific observation.”
Keywords: Halle Orphanage, Halle Pietists, enlightenment, Christian Wolff, Philanthropîa, scientific observation
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