Ørsted, Hans Christian

[Autom. eng. transl.] Illustration of the life and work of the Danish physicist and philosopher Hans Christian Ørsted. Of 1812 it is the Ansicht der chemischen Naturgesetze, with which Ørsted exposes his chemical theories and provides a first treatment of the relationship between electricity and magnetism, of which he will give complete public communication on 21 July 1820: Experimenta about effectum conflictus electrici in acum magneticam. His philosophical thinking is described in a series of treatises and dialogues collected in 1850 in the two vols. by Aanden i Naturen (The spirit in nature), work soon translated into Swedish, German and French. The central idea that animates Ørsted's philosophical conception is the unity of physical forces, which can be reached experimentally and not only through speculation, a trait that distinguishes Ørsted's peculiar position in the context of the Naturphilosophie romantic. The laws of nature are also the same laws of reason.