Abstract
In 1784, while studying granite, Goethe wrote the following: “Ich fürchte den Vorwurf nicht, dass es ein Geist des Widerspruches sein müsse, der mich von Betrachtung und Schilderung des menschlichen Herzens, des jüngsten, mannigfaltigsten, beweglichsten, veränderlichsten, erschütterlichsten Teiles der Schöpfung zu der Beobachtung des ältesten, festesten, tiefsten, unerschütterlichsten Sohnes der Natur geführt hat” (Goethe, 1947–1949, hereafter LA I: 1, 58–59). The shift from The Sorrows of Young Werther to the study of rocks ended up being a permanent move for Goethe. Though he never wrote another work quite like Werther Goethe continually came back to his geological studies throughout the last fifty years of his life.
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Hamm, E. (1991). Goethe’s Morphology of Stones: Between Natural History and Historical Geology. In: Woodward, W.R., Cohen, R.S. (eds) World Views and Scientific Discipline Formation. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 134. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3164-3_30
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