Art and Science: Organicism and Goethe’s Classical Aesthetics

Abstract

If one attempts to examine the role of a concept in the writings of a man of letters, it seems appropriate to begin with some linguistic observations pertinent to the discussion: aesthetics. To what extent and in what particular way does the metaphorical field associated with the concept of organism determine or at least reach into descriptions of the creative process as such? Such an initial step of modest pragmatics suggests itself especially in view of the fact that Goethe never developed a system of aesthetics, classical or otherwise, in which a theoretical analysis would be possible. In fact, we will see that he had a fundamental distrust of theoretical systems for art or nature. In what terms, then, does Goethe describe the process of artistic creation? As might be expected, there are indeed expressions of “conceiving,” of “nurturing” a theme, of “bearing” a poem for years until its final “birth.” Many of those poems which strike the reader with their convincing immediacy, which seem to have been nothing but impulse and instantaneous expression of feeling, came into the world after a considerable period of incubation. And Goethe emphasizes that the length of poetic pregnancy was not determined by the poet, but by an internal process of maturing and usually by an external, catalytic occasion.

Wer das Höchste will, muß das Ganze wollen; wer vom Geiste handelt, muß die Natur, wer von der Natur spricht, muß den Geist voraussetzen oder im Stillen mit verstehen.

J. W. Goethe