Primal phenomenon

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , oil painting by Joseph Karl Stieler

The original phenomenon is a term that was coined by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and, in addition to the term original plant, is part of his scientific research and color theory .

While for Goethe the idea is the absolute , the true and the divine , to which all phenomena can be traced back, the individual primal phenomena convey the one idea about appearance . The individual cannot recognize them through abstract speculation , but only when he is contemplating to see the essence of things. They are the ultimate reason to which experience can come and which only reveals itself as a secret.

Content and use of terms

Goethe did not always use the term, which was later taken up by philosophers such as Wilhelm Dilthey and Friedrich Nietzsche , Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers , in the context of his theory of nature. Occasionally he spoke of main manifestations or pure phenomena .

In his essay Experience and Science , written in 1798, he already differentiated between the “pure phenomenon” and individual entities such as light, air and weather as well as the “mental mood” of the observer. If he wanted to adhere to “the individuality of the phenomenon”, he would “drink up the sea.” Finally, he divided three levels: the “empirical”, “scientific” and “pure” phenomenon, which “is ultimately the result of all experience and experiments” . In this area, “the question is not about the causes, but about the conditions under which the phenomena appear.” Goethe did not differentiate between phenomena on the one hand and noumenon on the other: if you see the original phenomenon , you see the real reason for the phenomenon. In no. 488 of his late work Maxim and Reflections , he gave the hint: "... Just look for nothing behind the phenomena: they themselves are the teaching."

Opposite Eckermann he explained the astonishment as "the highest thing that a person can achieve". If “the primal phenomenon amazes him ... then he is satisfied, nothing higher can grant him, and he shouldn't look for anything further behind it, here is the limit.” Examples of individual primal phenomena are light and darkness, from which all colored or gray images are conveyed to the senses, iron , magnetism , electricity , the primordial animal from which other animals descend and the primordial polarity .

In the first chapter of his maxims and reflections , this pantheistic worldview is expressed: “Whoever wants to deny nature as a divine organ, just deny all revelation at once” and “Nature hides God! But not everyone! ”A little later he approaches the primal phenomenon with the adjectives:“ ... ideal as the last recognizable, real as known, symbolic because it understands all cases, identical to all cases. ”:“ Before the primal phenomena, when they appear revealed to our senses, we feel a kind of shyness, even fear. When I finally calm down with the primordial phenomenon, it is only resignation; But there remains a big difference whether I resign myself to the limits of humanity or within a hypothetical limitation of my narrow-minded individual. "

Development of the term

Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), posthumous portrait of Gerhard von Kügelgen from 1808/09

The primordial phenomenon was supposed to make the essential connections of the world clear in pure form and was for Goethe the outermost limit of human knowledge.

This view reflected the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant , with which he had come into contact through Friedrich Schiller . In contrast to Kant's subject-centered approach ( categories and forms of perception ) he emphasized the objective side of the phenomena more.

On July 20, 1794, what was probably the most important conversation in literary history between him and Schiller took place in Jena, a meeting that sealed the bond between the two and was called a happy event by Goethe in his autobiographical details in 1817 . Goethe not only describes how the meeting came about, but also gives important details of the conversation: “We got to his house, the conversation lured me into it; I vividly presented the metamorphosis of the plants and, with a few characteristic pen strokes, created a symbolic plant before his eyes. He heard and saw all of this with great sympathy, with resolute comprehension; but when I finished he shook his head and said, 'This is not an experience, this is an idea'. I paused, somewhat annoyed; for the point that separated us was marked in the strictest way. The claim out of grace and dignity came back to me, the old resentment was about to stir; But I pulled myself together and said: 'It can be very nice to me that I have ideas without knowing them and even see them with my eyes.' "

Background and interpretations

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, 1982

Goethe's late work is characterized by piety of old age and awe of the unsearchable. For him, the true is the old: "Everything that is clever has already been thought, you just have to try to think it again."

John Erpenbeck points out the ambiguity of the term. On the one hand, the term refers to a constructed phenomenon from which other, more complex ones can be derived, and on the other hand to a real original form from which other biological forms developed. Since both meanings merge into one another in Goethe's work, they create, according to Erpenbeck, a state of limbo that can be found in the various testimonies of the Italian journey , where Goethe studied the original plant in detail. With it, Goethe believed he had identified a model and key with which plants could be "invented into infinity", ultimately a law that could be applied to everything else. In his theory of colors he developed these ideas further in order to show a way to a final knowledge of nature in its diverse manifestations.

In the opinion of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , Goethe coined the original phaemomen, a term that contradicted the Cartesian model. As appearances, they were of secondary importance, since they showed themselves to a subject who was already connected to the object when the phenomenon occurred.

The poet and thinker Goethe wanted to integrate his conception of nature as a science into the objective knowledge of nature of the modern age. While he succeeded with regard to subjective colors, preparatory work on the theory of descent and the discovery of the intermaxillary bone, he erred at the points in his theory of colors where he wanted to contradict Newton . For Weizsäcker, however, he was wrong “because he wanted to be wrong.” With his special view of nature, he tried to counter the modern, dissecting science with a “ holistic ” view. If the Platonic idea becomes a general concept in natural science, it becomes a gestalt with Goethe .

Weizsäcker classifies this belief as trust in the miracle of the “divine nature”, which to question critically would contradict the “unsearchable glory” of the original phenomena. So the original phenomenon is the last, no longer deducible reason that can be understood as an “emerging idea”.

literature

  • John Erpenbeck, original phenomenon . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte ..., Volume 4/2, people, things, concepts, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01447-9 , pp. 1080-1082.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Joachim Schrimpf, notes. In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 743
  2. ↑ Hans Joachim Schrimpf, notes. In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 744
  3. ↑ Hans Joachim Schrimpf, notes. In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 744
  4. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Natural Science Writings, Goethe's Works, Hamburg Edition, Volume XIII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, pp. 24-25
  5. ↑ Hans Joachim Schrimpf. In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, notes, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 744
  6. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 432
  7. ↑ Quoted from: Hans Joachim Schrimpf, comments. In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 7444
  8. ↑ John Erpenbeck, Urphänomen . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.): Bernd Witte ..., Volume 4/2, people, things, terms, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, p. 1081
  9. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 364
  10. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 367
  11. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 367
  12. ↑ Theda Rehbock, Phenomenon . In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy , Volume. 7, p. 474
  13. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Autobiographical Writings, Goethe's Works, Hamburg Edition, Volume X, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 541
  14. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 415
  15. ↑ John Erpenbeck, Urphänomen . In: Goethe-Handbuch, (Ed.) Bernd Witte ..., Volume 4/2, People, Things, Concepts, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, p. 1080
  16. ↑ Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , Some terms from Goethe's natural science . In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XIII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 544
  17. ↑ Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Some terms from Goethe's natural science . In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XIII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 539
  18. ↑ Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Some terms from Goethe's natural science . In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XIII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 540
  19. ↑ Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker : Some terms from Goethe's natural science . In: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, Goethe's works, Hamburg edition, Volume XIII, CH Beck, Munich 1998, p. 552