Researching the Potential of Goethe's Thought for the Modern Era

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German writer, had many faces—author, critic, and politician, among others—and also made significant contributions to the field of natural science, including his "Morphology" and "Theory of Colors." His work is not easily grasped. My research explores the meaning of Goethe's work, taking as a starting point the reception of Goethe by the 20th-century thinker Walter Benjamin and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Europe in the latter half of the 18th century, when Goethe lived, was an era in which the natural sciences were developing rapidly, and scientific perspectives and ways of thinking began to dominate various fields of knowledge. The natural sciences emphasize the objective and theoretical "explanation" of material objects through abstraction and quantification. However, Goethe studied various natural phenomena, believing it was a mistake to cede the foundation of one's worldview to the natural sciences and that there must be a form of natural science that encompasses both spirit and matter.

Benjamin applied this Goethian way of thinking to historical research. He believed that when a historical event is "explained" within a narrative context, it becomes merely a single point in the flow of time. Instead, he thought it might be more authentic to "intuit" several events together as a large "image" or picture. Wittgenstein, in turn, incorporated a Goethian perspective into the field of philosophy of language. In contrast to traditional philosophy, which attempts to skillfully answer questions like "What is truth? What is good?" with language, he argued that we know how to use the words "truth" and "good" even if we cannot explain them, and that attempting to "explain" them with language only leads to more confusion. I believe that Goethe's ideas can be applied not only to history and language but to a wide variety of genres.

When we are bound by theoretical explanations and the law of cause and effect, we lose the desire and hope to shape our lives and the world as we wish. By freeing ourselves from these constraints, I believe we can live more vibrantly.

Since the year before last, I have been serving as the representative of an academic society called the "Goethean Science Forum." Here, diverse researchers—in fields including not only literature but also art, philosophy, aesthetics, medical sciences, and more—base their activities on Goethe's work. The society's journal, "Morphologia," has been in publication for over 30 years. In our modern era, where established ways of thinking have reached an impasse in various fields, I hope to organically connect research from this wide variety of domains and engage in activities that enable people to live vibrantly with a sense of purpose for the future.