Weltbeschreibung zwischen Literatur und Naturwissenschaft

With "Erste Erde", Raoul Schrott has presented a text that attempts to grasp the entire body of knowledge about the world - and thus inscribed himself in the tradition of polymaths such as Alexander von Humboldt, who pursued a similar goal with his "Cosmos" in the 19th century. Schrott thus opposes the specialized 21st century with a universal epic that unites literature and natural science. What relationship between these two apparent antipodes is manifested in it? To what extent is this relationship different in "Erste Erde" than in "Cosmos"? In the context of answering these questions, lines of development of a changing world view from Humboldt's time to the present are shown.