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“Idealism is nothing but genuine empiricism”: Novalis, Goethe, and the Ideal of Romantic Science

2011; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/gyr.2011.0471

1940-9087

Dalia Nassar,

Animal and Plant Science Education

“Idealism is nothing but genuine empiricism”: Novalis, Goethe, and the Ideal of Romantic Science Dalia Nassar Unlike Friedrich Schlegel and Schelling, Novalis1 did not live in Jena, and thus did not have the opportunity to meet regularly or work closely with Goethe.2 While the Schlegel brothers often sought out Goethe’s friendship and advice3 and Schelling worked closely with Goethe during his tenure in Jena,4 Novalis was living in Weißenfels (and Freiberg) and administering the salt mines. In spite of the distance and lack of interaction, Novalis, like many of his young contemporaries, revered Goethe. Unlike his contemporaries, however, Novalis considered Goethe’s genius and most important contribution to lie not in his literary work, but in his scientific experiments and writings.5 In his 1798 essay on Goethe, Novalis refers to Goethe as “der erste Physiker seiner Zeit” (the first physicist of his time), and in the Allgemeine Brouillon (1798–99), Novalis goes so far as to identify his own project with Goethe’s: “Göthische Behandlung der Wissenschaften—mein Project” (Goethean treatment of the sciences—my project) (NS 2:640; NS 3:452, Nr. 967). These claims are at first sight puzzling. Novalis has often been depicted as a poet whose otherworldly attitude evidences little interest in empirical study as practiced by Goethe. Furthermore, Goethe himself criticized Novalis and the romantics for their highly subjective poetry—poetry that did not attempt to express the world but only the self—and, especially toward the end of his life, Goethe sought to distance himself from what he saw as a negative tendency in romanticism.6 Finally, even those who have come to recognize an affinity between Goethe and Novalis continue to emphasize significant differences between the two (claiming, for example, that while Goethe was undertaking scientific experiments, Novalis was only theorizing about science) concluding that the questions and goals of their projects were fundamentally distinct.7 Although these differences are significant and should not be overlooked, they do not explain Novalis’s unparalleled admiration for Goethe’s scientific work. In addition, the widespread interpretation of Novalis as a poet whose concerns lie beyond the world of the senses is simply false. Novalis’s interest in science and nature, which is evidenced in most of his work from 1797 onward, is determined by a clear empiricist turn to the world of the senses and to the faculty of observation. In fact, Novalis’s major criticism of other [End Page 67] idealist philosophers is based on what he perceives as a lack of empiricism in their work. Furthermore, Goethe’s own judgment of Novalis as a “subjective” poet was, as Hans-Joachim Mähl has shown, significantly skewed by the Schlegel-Tieck edition of the Novalis Schriften (1802), and thus cannot be taken as a final word on their relationship.8 Questions remain, however, as to the degree of similarity between their scientific goals and practices, and the way in which we should understand Novalis’s unequivocal praise of Goethe’s science.9 There is a very fertile ground from which to begin to answer these questions. For one, Goethe and Novalis were unique among their friends and acquaintances in that they not only had a theoretical knowledge of science but were also practicing scientists. Additionally, they both displayed brilliance in science and poetry and sought to find a common ground between the two. Furthermore, during the time that Novalis was immersed in the study of nature and intensively pursuing the idea of a systematic presentation of all the arts and sciences (his encyclopedia project), he was also engaging with Goethe’s scientific contributions and learning from Goethe’s methods and practices.10 Thus, a comprehensive understanding of Novalis’s encyclopedia project appears to require an elaboration of his interest in Goethe’s work.11 However, Goethe’s influence on Novalis’s thinking cannot be limited to the encyclopedia project, but in fact extends to encompass Novalis’s very understanding of the meaning and practice of science in general. In Goethe Novalis found a particular manner of approaching the world that became essential for his self-understanding as a philosopher and for his understanding of the goal...