Zeising, Adolf

Adolf Zeising ( German: Adolf Zeising ; 1810 - April 27, 1876 ) is a German poet and philosopher .

In the 1830s published a collection of poems "Wolken"; first wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Morning. The poetry book Zeitgedichte published by him in 1846 was destroyed for liberal tendencies. Zeising took part in the movement of 1848, as a result of which he lost his place as a teacher of the gymnasium.

In 1854, his book Neue Lehre von den Proportionen des menschlichen Körpers aus einem bisher unerkannt gebliebenen, die ganze Natur und Kunst durchdringenden morphologischen Grundgesetze entwickelt (Lp.) Was published. This composition strengthened C.'s place in the history of aesthetic theories. The main idea of ​​the work is the development of the law of proportionality of division. If the whole has to be divided into parts unequal in volume and value, then an aesthetic impression will be obtained when the smaller part of the division refers to the larger, as the larger relates to the whole. This law, according to Zeising, was known in antiquity under the name of the " Golden Section ". Zeising illustrates it with examples borrowed from the consideration of parts of the human body and parts of a plant. The book begins with a historical sketch of aesthetics, which had significance for its time.

The following year, Zeising published a systematic exposition of the aesthetics “Aesthetische Forschungen” (Frankfurt, 1854), which, in terms of breadth of concept, can be set along with Fischer's classic work. Zeising's desire to give a doctrine of the categories of beauty did not remain without influence (for example, on M. Carrier). Zeising himself as follows determines the purpose of his work. He wants to consider beauty from a natural-historical point of view, to explain both spatial and temporal, as well as material and formal conditions that make the known phenomenon aesthetic; aesthetics should find out thanks to what qualities the phenomenon can become the personification of the primitives living in the human soul. From this it is clear that Zeising is far from naturalistic aesthetics in the modern sense of the word and is entirely based on the aesthetic theories of Hegel and partly Herbart. The articles published by C. in the magazines Kritische Monatshefte and Zeitschrift für Philosophie were included in the collection Religion und Wissenschaft, Staat und Kirche.

He also wrote novels: “Kunst und Gunst”, “Hausse und Baisse” and others, in which he did not find any special talent, and the tragedy “Kaiserin Eudoxia”, which was going on the Munich stage, but now completely forgotten.

Zeising activity in the field of mathematics is represented exclusively by works on mathematical aesthetics. Proceeding from the idea already expressed before him, that only the division of a line segment in the extreme and middle respects can satisfy a person’s eye and spirit, he extended this idea to the division of any object. He set himself the bold task of discovering its correctness, if possible, on all particular cases represented by the vast field of forms.

In addition to the above, Zeising printed:

• "Das Normalverhältniss der chemischen und morphologischen Proportionen" (Lp., 1856);
• "D. regulären Polyeder "(1869);
• "Ueber die Metamorphosen in den Verhältnissen der menschlichen Gestalt von der Geburt bis zur Vollendung des Längenwachsthums" ("XXII Band der neuen Publicationen der kaiserh leopold.-karolin. Akademie der Naturforscher");
• “Ueber die Unterschiede in den Verhältnissen der Racentypen” (“Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde”, Jahrgang 1856);
• “Aesthetische Forschungen im Gebiete der geometrischen Formen” (“Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift”, 31 Jahrgang, IV);
• “Das Pentagramm. Culturhistorische Studie ”(ibid., I).

For a Zeising biography, see Beilage der Augsburger allgem. Zeitung "in 1876, and a report on his work is in an article by Dr. S. Günther, Adolph Zeising als Mathematiker (Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. XXI, 1876).