Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Max Weber and the 'Faustian Universality of Man'

by Adrian Wilding

A audácia da diva

by Gabriela Cruz

Programa de Sala – Fausto. Lisbon: Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos, 2009, 109-115.

La Sicilia e le scienze naturali nella seconda metà del ‘700

by Alessandro Ottaviani

in Dietrich v. Engelhardt e Francesco Maria Raimondo (a cura di), Goethe e la pianta. Natura, scienza e arte, Palermo, Facoltà di scienze – Università di Palermo, 2006, pp. 113-126

La forma come esperimento o come destino

by Alessandro Ottaviani

"Aisthesis. Pratiche linguaggi e saperi dell'estetico", anno 3, numero 2°, 2011, pp. 297-334

This essay focuses on the complex relationship between Walter Benjamin and Goethe’s morphological doctrines as a key... more This essay focuses on the complex relationship between Walter Benjamin and Goethe’s morphological doctrines as a key way into defining the concept of the dialectical image. By analysing a wide and scarcely explored literature, it reconsiders Benjamin’s critical response to the re-utilisation of Goethe’s work by German biologists. It thus establishes a theoretical framework for delineating Benjamin’s radical opposition to Spengler’s philosophy of history.

'Nietzsche's Goethe: In Sickness and in Health', Publications of the English Goethe Society, 77 (2008), 113–124.

by Nick Martin

Originally presented as an invited paper to the English Goethe Society, April 2007.

"'the wonder of thy beauty': Bayard Taylor's Poems of the Orient as an Intermediary Between German Poetics and American Ethics". America and the Orient. Ed. Heike Schäfer. American Studies Monograph Series Vol. 130. Heidelberg: Winter, 2006. 73-102.

by Ralph Poole

Bottomless Surfaces: Saul Bellow's "Refreshed Phrenology"

by James Clements

Journal of Modern Literature - Volume 33, Number 1, Fall 2009, pp. 75-91

In Saul Bellow's 1970 novel Mr. Sammler's Planet, the eponymous narrator states that society should resist its... more In Saul Bellow's 1970 novel Mr. Sammler's Planet, the eponymous narrator states that society should resist its temptation to "explain," and should instead concentrate on "distinguishing"; the goal, he suggests, is to attain a level of perception in which meaning is found within the world, rather than imposed upon it. This idea runs to the core of Bellow's work, which often suggests that there are some intangible truths — morality, for instance — that are not merely human constructions, but have an objective ontological presence. These truths, Bellow's work playfully suggests, can be discovered if one attempts to collapse the false divide between subject and object. Once one accepts the troublesome idea of "truth in subjectivity," one can begin to "distinguish" between self-imposed concepts and "natural knowledge." This article traces this concept in Bellow's mid-period work in relation to his ethical theory, and argues that it has its roots in the writing of two key influences, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his follower Rudolf Steiner.

Goethe-Sommerkurs im Rahmen der Weimarer Sommerkurse 2009 (16. bis 29. August 2009, Weimar)*

by Lale Dayıoğlu

From a Philosophy of Self to a Philosophy of Nature: Goethe and the Development of Schelling's Naturphilosophie

by Dalia Nassar

published in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 92:3 (2010): 304-321.

This essay won the prize for "best essay published in the year 2010 on Goethe, his times, and/or contemporary figures," awarded by the Goethe Society of North America (GSNA).

One of the most significant moments in the development of German idealism is Schelling's break from his mentor Fichte.... more One of the most significant moments in the development of German idealism is Schelling's break from his mentor Fichte. On account of its significance, there have been numerous studies examining the origin and meaning of this transition in Schelling's thought. Not one study, however, considers Goethe's influence on Schelling's development. This is surprising given the fact that in the fall of 1799 Goethe and Schelling meet every day for a week, to go through and edit what came to be Schelling's most path-breaking work. This paper considers Goethe's influence on the development of Schelling's thought, and argues that it was by appropriating Goethe's idea of metamorphosis that Schelling was able to put forth a conception of nature as independent from the mind.

Walter Benjamin e as afinidades eletivas

by Imaculada Kangussu

Goethes klassische Dramen

by Franz-Josef Deiters

published in: Deutsche Klassik. Epoche – Autoren – Werke, ed. by Rolf Selbmann, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005, pp. 124-148.

Goethes 'Iphigenie auf Tauris' als Drama der Grenzüberschreitung oder: Die Aneignung des Mythos

by Franz-Josef Deiters

published in: Jahrbuch des Freien deutschen Hochstifts 1999, pp. 14-51.

"Du bist nur Bild". Die Selbstbegründung es Geschichtsdramas in Goethes "Egmont"

by Franz-Josef Deiters

published in: Geschichtserfahrung im Spiegel der Literatur. Festschrift für Jürgen Schröder zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. by Cornelia Blasberg and Franz-Josef Deiters, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 2000, pp. 65-88.

Speculative Experience and History: Walter Benjamin's Goethean Kantianism

by Matthew Charles

PhD Thesis

My thesis explicates and defends what I term an implicit Goetheanism present in the philosophy of Walter Benjamin. more My thesis explicates and defends what I term an implicit Goetheanism present in the philosophy of Walter Benjamin.

It begins by examining Benjamin’s early critique of the Kantian and neo-Kantian concept of experience and argues that a Goethean theory of the primal phenomenon provides the phenomenological model for Benjamin’s radical transformation of the neo-Kantian Idea. I analyse the importance of Goethe’s aesthetics of science for Benjamin’s critical development of Early German Romanticism and suggest that Goethe’s tender empiricism provides the intellectual backdrop to Benjamin’s later materialism. The chromatic-linguistic model of experience which informs Benjamin’s earliest writings is shown to develop into a dialectics of refractive expression, one that has important consequences for his concept of history and his unorthodox version of cultural materialism.

My final chapter examines the influence of Goethe upon what it argues is Benjamin’s quasi-Jungian criticism of Marxism, defending the importance of Jung’s semiotic critique of Freud’s theory of dream symbolism and its relevance for a materialist interpretation of ideology. The relationship between the Goethean and Jungian concepts of synthesis explains Benjamin’s proximity to a Jungian concept of the unconscious, it is argued, which is justified on the condition that a critique of Jung distinguishes the archaic image from Benjamin’s dialectical image. This is performed in the final chapter through a consideration of the allegorical and the technological in Jung and Benjamin’s differing receptions of Goethe’s Faust. The existential component of Goethe’s speculative concept of experience provides Benjamin with the resources for thinking of a dialectic of historical completion and incompletion, it is concluded, which is necessary for a philosophical informed cultural materialism.

Faust on Film: Walter Benjamin and the Cinematic Ontology of Goethe's Faust 2

by Matthew Charles

Published in Radical Philosophy 172 (Mar/Apr 2012)

Whilst the importance of Goethe’s thought in the work of the philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin has been... more Whilst the importance of Goethe’s thought in the work of the philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin has been acknowledged, less attention has been paid to the specific Faustian imagery that resurfaces in his final essays. This article examines Benjamin’s lifelong interest in Goethe, and suggests that the Faustian motifs of his last theses On the Concept of History may have been prompted by the French poet Paul Valéry’s decision to undertake a “third” version of Faust in 1940. It then offers an interpretation of Goethe’s Faust II – in accordance with an emphasis on a pragmatic conception of history developed in relation to an Anglophone reading of Gervinus in the first section – that draws on the cinematic afterlife of Goethe’s poem, to argue that its specific “greatness” for Benjamin may reside in the expression of a cinematic ontology that underpins his own mature philosophy.

J.W. Goethe si gradinile ca model de viata (J.W. Goethe and gardening as a model of life)

by Ana-Stanca Tabarasi-Hoffmann

In: "Rumänisches Goethe-Jahrbuch" 1 / 2011, p.119-132

The present article deals with the role of gardening in Goethe’s works (especially "Die Leiden des jungen... more The present article deals with the role of gardening in Goethe’s works (especially "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers", "Der Triumph der Empfindsamkeit" and "Die Wahlverwandtschaften"). Goethe’s use of the garden symbol is put into its literary context (the garden symbol in Matthias Claudius and Friedrich Nicolai) as well as into its social and horticultural context (the evolution of the so-called jardin anglo-chinois and of the German landscape gardens, most notably Wörlitz). The different garden styles are interpreted as expressions of different life views and identities.

Goethe's Way of Science as a Phenomenology of Nature (2005)

by David Seamon

Published in JANUS HEAD, Summer 2005, vol. 8, no. 1 [special issue on "Goethe's delicate empiricism"]

In this article, I argue that Goethe’s way of science, understood as a phenomenology of nature, might be one valuable... more In this article, I argue that Goethe’s way of science, understood as a phenomenology of nature, might be one valuable means for fostering a deeper sense of responsibility and care for the natural world. By providing a conceptual and lived means to allow the natural world to present itself in a way by which it might speak if it were able, Goethe’s method offers one conceptual and applied means to bypass the reductive accounts of nature typically produced by standard scientific and humanist perspectives. I illustrate this possibility largely through examples from Goethe’s Theory of Color (1810).

„‚Tempus fugit? Nicht doch!‘ Goethe und die unaufhörliche Gleichzeitigkeit der Dichtung – Durs Grünbeins Geburtstagslesung.“ [Goethe and the Never-ending Simultaneity of Poetry – D. Grünbeins Birthday Talk.]

by Florian Lippert

In: Freiburger Goethe-Blätter 13, 2006, 1-2.

"Goethe's Analysis of Exodus 34 and Its Influence on Julius Wellhausen: The Pfropfung of the Documentary Hypothesis."

by Bernard M. Levinson

Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 114 (2002) 212-223.

This article investigates the intellectual history of the argument for the antiquity of Ex 34,11–26. In the... more This article investigates the intellectual history of the argument for the antiquity of Ex 34,11–26. In the contemporary debate about pentateuchal theory, a question that remains insufficiently addressed is how and why the idea originally developed that the unit represents an ancient, independent, pre-Deuteronomic legal source. Wellhausen credited the idea to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s »Zwo bisher unerörterte biblische Fragen …« (1773). Like Goethe, Wellhausen regarded the unit as a »ritual Decalogue,« in contrast to the »ethical Decalogue« of Exodus 20. The distinction helped Wellhausen consolidate the classical model of the documentary hypothesis: he attributed the cultic Decalogue to the Yahwist and the ethical one to the Elohist. Despite the importance of Goethe’s essay to the history of pentateuchal criticism, it is not clear that its arguments have previously been investigated. The article addresses equally Goethe's construction of the Jew as "other" and as particularistic, in contrast to the German Protestant as "self" and universal. The article demonstrates that Goethe could not have read read Spinoza's Tractatus, despite the common belief otherwise.

Keywords:
Julius Wellhausen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Baruch Spinoza, Zwo bisher unerörterte biblische Fragen, Dekalog, Decalolgue, cultic Decalog, ethical Decalog, German Jewish history, Christian Jewish relations, Ten Commandments, history of biblical scholarship, Exod 34:11-26; German Romanticism

‘Ich ist Nicht-Ich = Alles ist Alles.’ Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Verhältnisse zwischen Goethe und Fichte. Fichte-Studien 19, 55-94.

by Serenella Iovino

Fichte-Studien 19 (2002): 55-94.
Also available in Italian: 'Ich ist Nicht-Ich = Alles ist Alles.’ Contributo alla storia dei rapporti tra Goethe e Fichte. Rivista di Studi Germanici 1 (2000): 25-71.

English title: "I is Not-I = All is All." Goethe's relationship to Fichte: An Historical Contribution.more English title: "I is Not-I = All is All." Goethe's relationship to Fichte: An Historical Contribution.
A study on Goethe's understanding of Fichte's "Doctrine of Science" and on the philosophical background of Goethe's scientific writings.