The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1136: Chapter 112: Shared Faith (2)

”From the Ceres incident, we can see the difference between philosophy and natural philosophy. Hegel can boastfully claim it’s a comet just by using his so-called dialectic logic, whereas Gauss had to carefully verify over several days and nights, with dozens of pages of calculations, before announcing that Ceres could be observed on the night of December 31 that year.”

The discussion originally revolved around Gauss and Hegel, but in an instant, it escalated into a debate about which is superior—natural philosophy or philosophy.

However, from these simple few sentences, one can indeed glimpse the general dissatisfaction of natural philosophers towards philosophers.

From a societal perspective, the status of philosophers has always been more noble than that of natural philosophers.

In terms of remuneration, natural philosophers’ salaries are indeed slightly lower than those of philosophers.

Not to mention, Germany also has philosophers like Hegel who enjoy sharply criticizing natural philosophy.

If Arthur were in the position of those natural philosophers, he would have flipped the table long ago.

Moreover, even emotionally, Arthur leans more towards natural philosophy, mainly because Hegel is indeed too annoying.

Because his outrageous statements are too numerous, such as:

Water is not composed of oxygen and hydrogen. Certainly, an electric spark can make the two become water, but that doesn’t mean water is composed of these two.

Sunlight is indeed hot, but this heat does not belong to the sunlight itself; it becomes hot only when it reaches the Earth. Because when climbing a mountain, the higher you go, the colder it becomes.

If Hegel were a philosopher living in Ancient Greece, Arthur would be willing to rank him as equally important as Aristotle and Socrates.

But he happens to live in the 19th century, so Arthur can only identify him as a Prussian know-it-all.

This famous Prussian know-it-all clearly knows nothing about natural philosophy, yet he attempts to make all academic fields submit to his Hegelian system and is, rightfully, spurned by all fields of natural philosophy.

During his time at the Royal Society, Arthur often heard scientists joking about Hegel: Either you can accept Hegel’s philosophical system, or you can be a researcher in natural philosophy. However, you can’t have both.

In a certain sense, Hegel deserved this.

After all, there are many philosophers in the world, but only he is so detested by scientists.

Arthur saw the professors arguing heatedly and hurriedly intervened: ”Gentlemen, I think the debate about Hegel should not escalate to the realm of philosophy. For example, if I mention Mr. Kant, none of you here would disrespect him, would you?”

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, a white-haired old professor stood up to express his stance: ”Of course, Mr. Kant is respected at any university in Germany. Furthermore, I believe that continuing to argue over these trifles is truly not conducive to the progress of philosophy and natural philosophy.”

This old professor appeared to be quite authoritative at school, and as soon as he spoke, the hall fell silent.

Sitting not far from him, the two middle-aged gentlemen also stood up to show their support for the old professor and the new academic director, adding a humorous remark.

”We also think this debate is meaningless, after all, everyone is here for a teaching conference today. If you want a duel, why not look for that young Bismarck fellow, or perhaps spar with Hasting’s school director. But I advise you, we’re all not young anymore, it’s hard to win against the young, so let’s just stick to wordplay.”

Seeing some support from the crowd, Arthur asked, ”I’ve been at the school for a short time, so I haven’t met many people yet. May I take this opportunity to ask for your names?”

The old professor chuckled and replied, ”Friedrich Strohmer, professor of chemistry. I am an old acquaintance of Mr. Faraday and his mentor, Sir Humphry Davy. Before you took office at Gottingen, Mr. Faraday introduced you to me in a letter. I am pleased to meet you, Professor Hastings.”

The two middle-aged gentlemen beside him also spoke up.

”We are brothers and also librarians at the school. Jacob Grimm, pleased to meet you.”

”William Grimm salutes you, Mr. Director.”

Hearing these three names, Arthur was startled for a moment, then quickly realized.

He first doffed his hat in respect to Mr. Strohmer: ”Mr. Faraday sends his regards to you.”

Then, Arthur turned his gaze to the Grimm brothers and softly inquired: ”Grimm Fairy Tales?”

The Grimm brothers exchanged a glance, then burst into laughter: ”Didn’t expect you’ve read the ’Grimm Fairy Tales’, but come to think of it, when we published that collection, you must have still been a child.”

Hearing the Grimm brothers personally confirm their identities, Arthur couldn’t help but entertain the idea of dragging Andersen to Gottingen for further studies.

If he pushes himself a bit harder, with Arthur’s current network, maybe from now on, ’Brit’s’ publications could encompass books that accompany a person from birth to death.

Reading ’Andersen’s Fairy Tales’ and ’Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ in childhood,

In adolescence, going through Eld and a series of major works inspired by Eld, such as ’Robinson Crusoe’, ’St. George’s flag still rises’, ’Monkey’s Story’, and whatnot.