The Darwinian tension: Romantic science and the causal laws of nature

• Darwin's theory of evolution arose from a synthesis between romantic Naturphilosophie and early Victorian modern science.
• The twofold influence of A.v. Humboldt and J.F.W. Herschel is particularly relevant.
• Darwin's view of nature and his techniques of observation testify to his romantic roots.
• Darwin's adherence to modern science manifests in his quest for causal laws.
• A romantically conceived domain of the explanandum is subject to causal explanation.

There have been attempts to subsume Charles Darwin's theory of evolution under either one of two distinct intellectual traditions: early Victorian natural science and its descendants in political economy (as exemplified by Herschel, Lyell, or Malthus) and the romantic approach to art and science emanating from Germany (as exemplified by Humboldt and Goethe). In this paper, it will be shown how these traditions may have jointly contributed to the design of Darwin's theory. The hypothesis is that their encounter created a particular tension in the conception of his theory which first opened up its characteristic field and mode of explanation. On the one hand, the domain of the explanandum was conceived of under a holistic and aesthetic view of nature that, in its combination with refined techniques of observation, was deeply indebted to Humboldt in particular. On the other hand, Darwin fashioned explanations for natural phenomena, so conceived, in order to identify their proper causes in a Herschelian spirit. The particular interaction between these two traditions in Darwin, it is concluded, paved the way for a transfer of the idea of causal laws to animate nature while salvaging the romantic idea of a complex, teleological and harmonious order of nature.