Goethe and Helmholtz: Science and Sensation

Abstract

The relation of Hermann von Helmholtz, the nineteenth-century physicist and physiologist, to Goethe is worth studying for the insights it can provide into the scientific ideas and the conceptions of science of both men. In 1853, toward the beginning of his academic career, and again in 1892, Helmholtz gave public lectures on Goethe’s scientific ideas. Goethe also figures in a number of Helmholtz’s popular philosophical writings of the intervening years as well as in technical professional works such as his Manual of Physiological Optics. I will try to show that these writings offer an understanding and assessment of Goethe’s involvement with science which are still valuable. Far from being surpassed by more recent appreciations of Goethe by scientists, historians of science and Goethe scholars, Helmholtz’s full interpretation has scarcely been assimilated. It could still prove to be important for the current interest in Goethe’s scientific concerns.

Originally read at a joint symposium sponsored by the Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science and the Departments of Germanic Languages and History of Science at Harvard University, 3–4 December 1982.