Goethe’s Place In The History of Science

GOETHE'S PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE* G. s. BRETT G OETHE was aware that his age was ari age of specialists who were not likely to accept as science the opinions of a poet, though they . frequently accepted as poetry the metrical compositions of scientists. For this reason he gave an account of his work in a history of his botanical studies, a·sserting that he had devoted himself "seriously through many years to the study of the physical and physiological phenomena of nature, observing the1n with the perseverance which passion alone can give''. This is unadulterated truth, but even this candid statement has not sufficed to reconcile the average mind to a belief in the possible union of such extremes as poetry and science. The historian of literature approaches Goethe's scientific writings with some misgiving and treats them as though they needed so1ne apology. The historian of science, if he is honest, cannot overlook Goethe; but the history of science is still an undeveloped branch of literature and is dominated by the belief that what is now superseded has very little intrinsic value. Between these two attitudes, both limited and consequently prejudiced , there is a middle path which the circumstances indicate, and the first necessity is to _ define the special conditions which make intelligible · the synthesis of poetry and science in the personality of Goethe. . Words, which should be our servants, are too often our masters. In this case the word science is itself a subtle cause of error. It suggests that hard and. fast *A lecture delivered in the University of Toronto during the Cencenary Celebrations of the life and work of Goethe, March 1932. 279 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY distinction between fact and hypothesis, between reality and imagination, which has never been wholly true of the greatest thinkers in any field. It is a word peculiarly unsuited to the age of Goethe which, in fact, expressed its own ideal in the more comprehensive term \Vissenschaft . If the practical mind of the English and the precise intellect of the French offer no obstruction to the use of the word science, the history of German thought makes it necessary to find a different symbol for its attitude toward the universe of experience. The current of German education and the organi~ation of its universities were responsible for that unity of nature and mind which exercised a subtle and pervasive influence during ' the period, in which Germany evolved its own peculiar culture. The distinction between science and Wissenschaft is neither trivial nor pedantic: it is indispensable 1 for understanding the qualities, good and bad, which n1arked the age dominated by l'Iaturphilosophie. An old tradition has been preserved in some ·British universities by calling the professorship of physics a chair of natural philosophy. But even this echo fron1 the distant past does not sound like that philosophy of nature which for half a century was the fine flower of the German intellect. Without some comprehension of the peculiar character of this mode of thought it is not possible to understand either Goethe or any of his most significant contemporaries: it 1s best, therefore, to face the problem at orice. To begin with the background of the scene, we tnay recall the fact that the eighteenth century was in many ways the sunset of the middle ages. The break-up of the mediaeval empire, political, ecclesiastical and educational , was slow and very unevenly accomplished. The 1na1n themes, political nationalism and personal indi280 GOETHE AND SCIENCE vidualism, were worked out by different countries at different times. Italy and France and England made their bid for supremacy in turn and finally settled down to occupy a tecognized place in the procession of history. As was fitting, Italy appropriated the revival of learning and restored the lost culture of pagan R01ne. · It also achieved a task even more important, though less appreciated, by fostering the new sciences which Leonardo da ·Vinci and Galilee virtually created. The work of Galilee was carried on by Newton in England and by the French n1atherriaticians of -whom, for the present, we need mention only Descartes. When we turn from these brightly lighted-centres...