Fr. Dannemann.
How Did Our Picture of the World Arise?
(Kosmos). Stuttgart, 1912

Written 1915 · pages 331–332 · First published 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XII. Published according to the manuscript · Translated by Clemence Dutt

The remarks on Fr. Dannemann’s book “Wie unser Weltbild entstand” (Kosmos). Stuttgart, 1912 [F. Dannemann, How Did Our Picture of the World Arise (Cosmos), Stuttgart, 1912] were written by Lenin in a notebook preceding the conspectus of G. Noël’s Hegel’s Logic.
 
Note that this document has undergone special formating to ensure that Lenin’s sidenotes fit on the page, marking as best as possible where they were located in the original manuscript.

 

FR. DANNEMANN. HOW DID OUR PICTURE
OF THE WORLD ARISE?

(KOSMOS). STUTTGART, 1912

(Nat. XII. 456)

In this pamphlet the author gives a kind of summary
of his four-volume work: “Naturwissenschaf-
ten in ihrer Entwicklung und in ihrem
Zusammenhange”...

 

About 5,000 years of the development
of civilisation from ancient Egypt to our
time. According to Homer, the world was

 (((Much  pop-
ularisa-
tion...)))

only the Mediterranean Sea and surround-
ing countries. (P. 8)[1]

In Egypt the clear nights facilitated
the pursuit of astronomy. They observed
the stars and their movement, the moon,
etc.

The author
carelessly,
pompously,
vulgarly, in
feuilleton
style outlines
philosophical
questions,
banal.
 

At first the month was reckoned as 30
days, and the year as 360 (p. 31). The an-
cient Egyptians already had 365 days.
(P. 32) Eratosthenes (276 B.C.) determined
the circumference of the earth as 250,000
“stadia” = 45,000 km. (instead of 40,000).

Aristarchus guessed that the earth re-
volved round the sun, p. 37 (1,800 years
before Copernicus, 1473-1543). (Third cen-
tury B.C.) he considered the moon to be
3 0 (instead of 48) times smaller than
the earth, and the sun to be 300 (instead
of 1,300,000) times larger than the earth....

 
The booklet
is neither
here nor
there: for a
philosophical
work it is
careless, sen-
tentious, pet-
ty, banal;—
for a popular
work it is
pretentious.
 

Ptolemy’s system (second
          diagonal arrow         century A.D.)
        fifteenth century: the
revival of astronomy—con-
nection with navigation.

Copernicus (1473-1543):
heliocentric system. Circles
(not ellipses).

((Only in the middle of
the nineteenth century im-
proved measuring instru
ments showed alteration in
the appearance of the fixed
stars))

Galileo—(1564-1642).
Kepler—(1571-1630).
Newton—(1643-1727).
 

the telescope
and so forth
((discovery
of more than
20 million
stars, etc.)) 		flattening
of the earth
at the poles
— 1/229 dia-
meter |instead
of 1/299| 		 

Pythagoras (sixth centu-
ry B.C.) the world is gov-
erned by number: and mea-
sure....

The four elements, sub-
stances, of the ancient phi-
losophers: earth, fire, water,
air....

Democritus (fifth centu-
    diagonal arrow   ry B.C.): atoms...
seventeenth century:
chemical elements.
 
 

Spectral analysis (1860)
Electricity, etc.
Law of conservation of
force.

 

Notes

[1] Dannemann, Fr., Wie unser Weltbild entstand? Stuttgart, 1912.—Ed.