Enlightenment Salon: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is recognized as one of the greatest and most versatile European writers and thinkers of modern times but it is difficult to label him as a philosopher. He was not a philosopher like his contemporaries, “builder[s] of self-grounding systems of thought”, but a man reminiscent of the classical and renaissance philosophers (Schweitzer, 1949). He was man of great learning and wisdom and one of the greatest influential figures of German literature, science, music, and philosophy.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has been called the Shakespeare of the German language (Lombardi, 2013). He was also later known for his scientific contributions. Many in the nineteenth century ignored Goethe’s scientific discoveries as the amateur efforts of a poet and novelist. He would later be recognized for advancing biology by discovering morphology, which is fundamental to the theory of evolution and his work with color theory, which sought to disprove Newtonian physics (Seamon, 1998).
His philosophical ideas also alienated him from his contemporaries. There are two kinds of philosophy: the dogmatic and the nondogmatic. Goethe was one of the few of his time that allied himself with nondogmatic philosophy also known as natural philosophy. “Nondogmatic philosophy starts from nature, attaches itself to nature, and tries to interpret it according to observations and experiments which are being constantly enlarged and deepened” (University of Bergen). During his time dogmatic philosophy was more popular but Goethe was convinced of the worth of his own ideas and was able to separate himself from the influence of others (Spiro).
Goethe had a great distaste for organized religion and dare...
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...2013, from Internet Encyclopedia of Philsophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/goethe/
Lombardi, E. (2013). Top 7 Goethe's Poetry Books. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from About.com: http://classiclit.about.com/od/goethejohann/tp/aatp_goethepoet.htm
Schweitzer, A. (1949, July 6). Goethe: His Personality and His Work. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Tennesse Players: http://www.tennesseeplayers.org/goethebyschweitz.html
Seamon, D. (1998). Goethe, Nature, and Phenomenology. Retrieved from New York Press: http://www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/book%20chapters/goethe_intro.htm
Spiro, D. (n.d.). Remember: To Live! Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Aegis Press: http://www.theaegispress.com/Philosophy%20of%20Goethe.pdf
University of Bergen. (n.d.). Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from International UNiversity of Japan: http://www.iuj.ac.jp/media/stokes/goethe.htm
Goethe, Johann W. V. “Faust.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature: 1800-1900. Eds. Sarah Lawall and Maynard Mack. 2nd ed. Vol. E. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. 774. Print.
“Lord Byron.” Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2009: 269-272. Student Resources in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
Anyone who reads The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe instantly feels the emotional intensity portrayed by Werther, the protagonist. His speculations about life are indeed unique, especially in modern times when life often goes by quickly without notice. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why his immense emotion strikes a chord with readers as coming from someone crazy or dangerous. Werther’s mental state seems incredibly alive at some times while seemingly lifeless at others. This lifeless state of mind is similar to another sorrowful character in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. In his story of Billy Pilgrim, a similar wonder engulfs the reader, causing us to question the cause of both his mindset and of our own. These books bring a couple of interesting questions to mind… How much emotion is too much? How little is too little? These characters struggle with powerful emotion in many ways, and are therefore judged as mad. The two protagonists engage in totally different journeys, but each of them leads the reader to discover the limits of human emotion. These limits are reached by Werther and Billy, therefore leading to both characters’ demise.
Bishop, Paul. "The Guilty Hero, Or: The Tragic Salvation of Faust." A Companion to Goethe's Faust: Parts I and II. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2001. 56-75. Print.
The Enlightenment is a unique time in European history characterized by revolutions in science, philosophy, society, and politics. These revolutions put Europe in a transition from the medieval world-view to the modern western world. The traditional hierarchical political and social orders from the French monarchy and Catholic Church were destroyed and replaced by a political and social order from the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality(Bristow, 1). Many historians, such as Henry Steele Commager, Peter Gay, have studied the Enlightenment over the years and created their own views and opinions.
Solomon, Robert C., ‘Nietzsche ad hominem: Perspectivism, personality, and ressentiment,' in The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 180-222.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense represents a deconstruction of the modern epistemological project. Instead of seeking for truth, he suggests that the ultimate truth is that we have to live without such truth, and without a sense of longing for that truth. This revolutionary work of his is divided into two main sections. The first part deals with the question on what is truth? Here he discusses the implication of language to our acquisition of knowledge. The second part deals with the dual nature of man, i.e. the rational and the intuitive. He establishes that neither rational nor intuitive man is ever successful in their pursuit of knowledge due to our illusion of truth. Therefore, Nietzsche concludes that all we can claim to know are interpretations of truth and not truth itself.
At First the article Touches on the questioning of what Faust is. In summery, Faust is the protagonist of an old German story about a guy who is actually really successful, but at the same time is somewhat dissatisfied with his life life. He had a serious lust for earthly happiness, alo...
Benjamin, Walter. The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Trans. John Osborne. London: n.p., 1998. Print. fourth
ABSTRACT: In this paper I address some of John Dewey’s more generally applicable criticisms of the philosophic "tradition," and show how his criticisms stem from his naturalistic approach to philosophy. This topic is important because Dewey gives great insight into discussions that are relevant today regarding the role of philosophy. In 1935 he anticipated many of the criticisms of the "later" Wittgenstein regarding the establishment of post facto standards as a cause, the separation of language from behavior and the privatization of mind—yet Dewey still finds use for metaphysics or "thinking at large." I believe the essence of Dewey’s criticisms are found in a few key distinctions. Therefore, I cover the history of philosophy with blanket criticisms of the blanket categories of "classical" and of "modern" thought. For Dewey, the fundamental error characteristic of both Greek and Modern thinking is the artificial bifurcation of our thoughts, feelings and actions from the natural world. As I see it, the heart of this metaphysical mistake is captured by the distinctions he draws between the "instrumental" and "consummatory," and between the "precarious" and "stable."
Goethe’s statement, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help then to become what they are capable of being” is commonly used in both a positive and negative form in today’s society. When a person looks the statement carefully over, they will find the meaning into what he is saying. From the Bible, the quote “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” is very similar to Goethe’s statement. If a person acts in a certain way toward somebody, then the environment and the people in which that person is surrounded by affects his attitude directly. When a person believes somebody has the capability to be more than they are, and the person pushes that person to succeed, the person will live up to those standards. By having another source other than yourself see what you are capable of doing, it lets people see themselves from a different perspective. There are many examples in modern day society of Goethe’s statement.
...n cooperation. It is also interesting how this problem expands into Goethe's Faust and Italian Journey and seems to be the basis of a greater theme in his literature. The question of Goethe's appropriation of nature could be whether he subscribes to a mechanical or magical philosophy in MacLennan's terms. Either master to nature or companion, Goethe's relationship with nature is dynamic and complex.
Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals can be assessed in regards to the three essays that it is broken up into. Each essay derives the significance of our moral concepts by observing
The Romantic Hero in Goethe's Faust Works Cited Not Included Long hailed as the watershed of Romantic literature, Goethe’s Faust uses the misadventures of its hero to parallel the challenges that pervaded European society in the dynamic years of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Faust is the prototypical Romantic hero because the transformation of his attitudes mirrors the larger transformation that was occurring in the society in which Goethe conceived the play. Faust’s odyssey transports him from adherence to the cold rationale of the Enlightenment to a passion for the pleasures that came to define the Romantic spirit. Faust not only expresses the moral contradictions and spiritual yearnings of a man in search of fulfillment, but also portrays the broader mindset of a society that was groping for meaning in a world where reason no longer sufficed as a catalyst for human cultural life. The period of German Romanticism in which Goethe wrote Faust was plagued with the same intrinsic turmoil that Faust himself felt prior to making his deal with Mephisto.