Abstract

JIMENEZ PAZOS, Bárbara. Perception, description, and explanation in the work of Alexander Von Humboldt. Ideas y Valores [online]. 2017, vol.66, n.165, pp.57-83. ISSN 0120-0062.  https://doi.org/10.15446/ideasyvalores.v66n165.55198.

Alexander von Humboldt tends to be considered a romantic-naturalist author, due to the way he combines the scientific method of empirical analysis of nature with his aesthetic-subjective view that could be said to have some "romantic" characteristics. Nonetheless, the study of the lexicon used by Humboldt to describe nature reveals the predominance of strictly scientific and intersubjective language over subjective language. Even so, the presence of "romantic" semantic traits is not merely ornamental; rather, it has an aesthetic function, which, in Humboldt's perception of nature, is an indispensible subjective complement within his holistic worldview.

Keywords : A. von Humboldt; description of the landscape; nature; perception; romanticism.

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