J.W. GOETHE'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THINKING: BASED ON GOETHE'S FAIRY TALE.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Famous Persons↗
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Results for “GOETHE”
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
[Goethe's skull and skeleton].
In 1970 there was a conservation of Goethe's skeleton, housed in the Fürstengruft in Weimar. This procedure was kept secret until 1999. The restoration of the sarcophagus and the conservation of the skeleton have been documented together with many photos in the so-called "Sonderakte Mazeration Goethe" (special file mazeration Goethe). In this special file there are also photos of Goethe's skull and skeleton which will be published here for the first time and analysed under anthropological and palaeopathological aspects. A short description of the skull will be given. The dentition of Goethe at the time of his death and the question of progenia in Goethe's family are discussed in detail. Data on Goethe's stature obtained from the skeleton qualify statements of Goethe's contemporaries. Among the few documented pathological changes the ankylosis of eight thoracal vertebrae (T 5-12) and five right ribs are of special interest, caused by the loss of the intervertebral discs, spondylosis deformans and Morbus Forestier. A connection between this ankylosis and the known stiff posture and stiff gait of Goethe is obviously and possibly dates back to Goethe's fortieth years of age.
Famous Persons↗
Goethe's bone and the beginnings of morphology.
Biology as a discipline per se and its agenda, seems not to have been burdened from its beginnings as heavily with neo-Platonism as its subspecialty morphology, conceptualized at the same time by Goethe and Burdach. One of the reasons may have been that biologists were then regarded as "mere" naturalists, "doing" anatomy and embryology, breeding, and field work (as did Darwin, Wallace, Bateson and a legion of others during the 19th century), whereas the, perhaps more elitist, morphologists, ab initio devoted themselves to the origin, even to the Kantian analysis of causes of development and its variability within and between species. Since Goethe included abnormal plant development in his studies, his definition of morphology as the science of the form, formation and transformation of living organisms may be modified to include the concept of malformation, although the embryological and comparative analysis of vertebrate/mammalian malformation had its real inception somewhat later with the younger Meckel. In view of the meaning attached by his French contemporaries to the term transformisme (eventually defined as evolution) one would err considering Goethe as a prophet of "descent;" he was not, referring primarily to the continuous state of flux of living beings. Nonetheless, Goethe and Burdach independently coined the concept of morphology and set its agenda, increasingly freed of Naturphilosophie, an agenda that dominated 19th century biology but which did not come to fruition in its causal analysis of form and its formation until the 20th century, after Mendel, Darwin and the pioneers of experimental embryology (a.o., Roux, Driesch, Spemann, Vogt). In his discovery of the intermaxillary bone in humans (Goethe's bone), he had a startling insight, against conventional wisdom, into the anatomical, hence developmental, similarity of primate/mammals. During his lifetime, this was still called analogie by his great French contemporary Etienne Geoffroy St-Hilaire who actually meant what Owen later called homology which became one of Darwin's most powerful arguments for descent. A case of a pearl found by a blind chicken? Definitely not; Goethe had his nose far too close to the ground to have missed any of the major intellectual trends in the "life-sciences" in the late 18th/early 19th century; but, he was too much of an amateur to have had the kind of insights of grand plans granted to von Baer, Mendel and Darwin.
Anatomy↗
["I am rather satisfied with this interpretation of my dreams." -- real-life and work-related encounters between psychiatrist Johann Christian August Heinroth and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe].
Apart from being a major pioneer of modern psychiatry, Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773 - 1843) is foremost famous as the first academic teacher, professor of this subject at Leipzig University. Despite his theoretical concepts being thoroughly investigated by medical historians, the fact that his scientific work also brought him in contact with Weimar poet and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) has up to now not been acknowledged. This paper analyses for the first time the manifold points of contact between the two geniuses. Starting off with a retrospective on Goethe's relationship towards psychiatry in his day, this paper investigates the mutual interconnections and influences between the two. This is achieved by an analysis of yet unknown primary sources as well as Goethe's literary and scientific works. A main emphasis is also placed on Heinroth's Textbook of Anthropology of 1822 in which the psychiatrist laid out his understanding of 'relational thinking' (gegenständliches Denken), a key concept for both. This theory developed from Heinroth's dealing with Goethe's concept of "anschauung" and was to gain major importance not only for his way of gaining knowledge in general but also for his psychiatric concept. Goethe's influence on Heinroth is particularly revealed in the latter's holistic views on mental illnesses. Heinroth's visit to Goethe on 15 September 1827 can be earmarked as a sign of their mutual esteem.
Dreams↗
[Height-induced vertigo and its medical interpretation: Goethe and the Strassburger Münster].
An analysis combining medicine and literature challenges the methodology of both disciplines. This essay on the vertigo Goethe suffered on the tower of the Strasbourg Minster attempts to trace the vicissitudes of interpreting an emblem, like vertigo, burdened by cultural meaning and implications. Thus, Goethe's own report of this event 40 years after the fact, in his "Dichtung und Wahrheit", has to be related to another, hidden chronology of vertigo and fear in his account which, at first glance, conveys quite different implications. The first part of this paper refers to a medical interpretation of Goethe's dread of high places and his way of coping with it which, today, could be defined as a typical example of a behaviourist approach. In the second part, Goethe's vertigo is linked to psychoanalytic, literary, and historical reflections on the meanings of symptoms we connect today with medical terms like anxiety, phobia, and vertigo. Goethe's vertigo is shown as a complex problem--not only for himself but also for its interpreters: on the one hand, it tells its own story-within-a-story; on the other, it depends on the tools it was written with. Traditional approaches of medical history try to find symptoms and traces of diseases known to us today in literary texts, an approach which is as dubious as taking today's tools of medical analysis, such as psychoanalytic terms and concepts, to explain specific phenomena in literature without first carefully analysing these methods themselves, and only then subjecting the text to an analysis based on them. Nevertheless, this essay does not contest the justification of interpreting literary texts in the light of today's medical knowledge, but postulates that it should be clear which type of medical knowledge is applied. It is quite possible to read Goethe's account only as an old tale of acrophobia, but how will this help us? It seems more interesting to look at the link between the feeling of dizziness he experienced on top of the tower and the "cultural feeling" of the Sturm and Drang period, and then to trace the perception of this feeling at that time within its cultural context and in the light of prevalent medical theory.
Famous Persons↗
[Final clarification of Goethe's findings in the examination of color blind patients].
During his researches on colour-vision Goethe has examined two colour blind students. The reports and the colour tests made by Goethe himself are mostly preserved. Due to the colour confusions in the whole purple zone Goethe decided that the subjects were blue blind. During the 19th century-- however--the supposition arose that it must have been a red-green-blindness. It was Trendelenburg, who supposed a deuteranopia. On the other hand reconstructions of Goethe's examinations had the result that it was in all probability a protanopia. A final solution of this discussion is now possible after a great-grandson of Goethe's subject Gildemeister was found out and examined at Nagel's anomaloscope. He is a typical protanope. According to the pedigree demonstrating the typical x-linked hereditary transmission, we can be sure that Goethe's subjects were protanopes.
Color Perception Tests↗
[The intermaxillary bone and Goethe's Mephistopheles].
The greatest anatomist of the second half of the 18th century was considered to be Petrus Camper from Holland. His theory - widespread as a dogma - stated that the anatomical difference between man and animal was the missing intermaxillary bone in man, this being the distinguishing feature between man and monkey. Against this theory Goethe set hs own reflections and observations, and on March 27th 1784 he found, by "reflection and coincidence", the intermaxillary bone in the human skull. In order to present his exciting discovery to the famous anatomist, he wanted to use as an intermediary his good friend Johann Heinrich Merck from Darmstadt who was in contact with Petrus Camper. But Merck delayed the requested forwarding of the manuscript, belittled Goethe and the significance of his treatise considerably in an accompanying letter, did not forward Camper's replies, and in the meantime even took advantage of Goethe's treatise for his own publications. It as only late that Goethe became aware of the scheming and mean behaviour of his "good friend", and he felt disappointed and betrayed by Merck. In Goethe's dramatic poem "Faust", Dr. Faust is confronted with the figure of Mephistopheles--the spirit who always plans evil and always denies. There is enough evidence to believe that the person of J. H. Merck can be recognized in this figure, and that Goethe's discovery of the human intermaxillary bone had its part in creating the figure of Mephistopheles as we know it today.
Germany↗
Goethe almost died of urosepsis.
In the year of 1805, Goethe almost died of urosepsis. His urological problems were not diseases arising from full health but a new variation in a life accompanied by illnesses. Some sources date the first colics he experienced to the year 1795 and others say 1805. The most dramatic period in the course of his illness was in February, when he suffered from fever of such an extent that one could speak of urosepsis. Recovery took place slowly and was accompanied by minor relapses. Nothing about this is written down in his work. On the advice of his doctors, Goethe undertook a cure in Lauchstädt in July and August. The report of his consultant, Professor Johann Christian Reil, on his problems in the field of urology remained undiscovered until 1937. Professor Reil recommended treatment with thermae carolinae, aqua calcis, soap soda crystallisata, herbae subastringentes, and uva ursi, among other measures. With increasing age, Goethe's colics disappeared. The passing of a stone has never been described. Whereas Goethe hinted about medical problem other than those reported herein, the urological problems discussed in this article were left unmentioned. Nonetheless, literature that deals with Goethe's diseases is interesting from the aspect of both the history of medicine and the history of culture.
Bacteremia↗
[Phylogenetic elements in Goethe's theory of colors].
Phylogenetic findings in the field of human color vision are compared with Goethe's theory of colors. Goethe's research into nature was often based on his view that whenever you find complex ("mannigfaltige') natural phenomena, there has always been a development from simple phenomena. In this connexion his interest focused on the identification of primordial phenomena ("Urphänomene') and not on the temporal aspects of development. This was also true for his studies of color. Based on erroneous interpretations of prismatic experiments, he put forward the theory that all colors developed from the two primordial colors yellow and blue, which were, according to Goethe, the two "first and simplest colors'. Although some of his assumptions were incorrect, his theory has many similarities with current phylogenetic findings, according to which our color vision is derived from an original perception of two colors, possibly yellow and blue. This similarity needs clarification on an interdisciplinary level as well as research to determine the degree to which Goethe's own physiological condition influenced his study of colors. The author suggests that a reappraisal of this, the largest section of Goethe's scientific work is now necessary.
Color↗
Goethe's science: an approach to research in American Indian Studies.
In The Wholeness of Nature (1996), Henri Bortoft shows how a Goethean science of qualitative wholeness complements the analytic and causal- explanatory framework that underlies most research in the natural and social sciences. Goethe's insights and methods suggest that a better understanding of Indian tribes may occur when a tribe is regarded as its own abstraction and its own explanation. In Goethe's approach to science, the human mind is an "organ of perception" and researchers are active participants in the way they see the world. Consider an Indian tribe and the goal of Goethean science is to intuitively "see" patterns of interpenetrating relationships in a dynamic process of self-organization that is the tribe. While analytic science and Goethe's science of wholeness are incommensurable, both are true, and neither is comprehensive.
Biological Science Disciplines↗
[Christiane vs. Goethe's final illness].
This paper deals with the diseases of Christiane, Goethe's wife, during the period of their marriage (1806-1816). Recurrent stomach complaints, due perhaps to gastro-duodenitis or an ulcer, were, it is suggested, of psychosomatic origin. They might have resulted from an intrinsic conflict between Christiane's unsatisfied desire for nearness and Goethe's absolute insistence on periods of distance and seclusion for the sake of his creative work. In contrast to this, Christiane's final illness was organic in nature. Contemporary records clearly indicate that she was suffering, not from suspected cerebrovascular accidents, but from the late form of symptomatic epilepsy with single grand mal seizures documented in 1815. In May/June 1816 these gave way to a series of grand mal seizures continuing into a malignant grand mal state, from which she never recovered. Pathogenetic aspects of the disease, allowing for the hypothesis of a latent infantile cerebral paresis together with the proven alcohol consumption are discussed and, in particular, the reasons why the correct diagnosis has been missed by posterity, even though it was clearly pointed out by Möbius as long ago as 1903. It is suggested that persistent irrational and unobjective prejudices relating to epilepsy, to Christiane's personality and last but not least to Möbius' pathographic approach have, up to the present, led to a dismissal of the true diagnosis of Christiane v. Goethe's final illness.
Famous Persons↗
Why Goethe rejected Newton's theory of light.
Observations that he himself had made persuaded Goethe to reject Newton's theory of light and to put forward an alternative theory of the colour phenomena seen with a prism. Duck has argued that Goethe's attack on Newton's theory rested on valid experimental observations that appeared to present a difficulty for Newton's theory but to support his own views on colour. Duck has also proposed that these observations may be accounted for as an instance of the Bezold-Brücke phenomenon. It is argued here that this explanation is invalid and that two other features of colour processing can explain Goethe's observations.
Color Perception↗
[the experience of the knowledge in Newton's and Goethe's works].
The origin of the knowledge, explained through the perception of the colours saw, during many years, the contrast between the two theories asserted by the objectivists and subjectivists. the authors have emblematically brought the two schools back to two excellent personages: Newton (1704) and Goethe (1810), the former physicist, the latter naturalist. Newton was an upholder of the corpuscolar theory of the light and of the objective process. Goethe, on the contrary, tried to assert the ondulatory theory of the light. Authors' work centers on the exegesis of the significant passages of the two personages' fundamental works together with the reflections of the philosophers of the science, who were contemporary with Newton and Goethe and posteriors to them.
Color Perception↗
[On similarities and differences between morphological concepts of Linnaeus and Goethe].
Analysis of C. Linnaeus' and J.W. Goethe's morphological ideas shows that they both deal with structure of object under study however Linnaeus understood it perceptive structure while Goethe as its proper structure. Perceptive structure is an image (Gestalt) formed in observer's mind and recognized by the discriminating traits. The proper object structure is composed of its morphological elements, that can be distinguished only by a special study of their transformations. Notion of the plants modular construction originated within Goethe's ideas about plant morphology. We cannot expect any remarkable advances in modular theory as well in the descriptive and constructive morphology until conceptual differences between these two approaches will be understood.
Botany↗
[Carl Ludwig Homburg. A prosector in Goethe's time].
The interest of the medical historian is not necessarily confined to great scholars but can be devoted, as well, to assistant like Homburg who had been not only the prosector of J. C. Loder, anatomist in Jena but had, at the same time, worked for J. W. v. Goethe, Cabinet Minister in Weimar and in charge of Jena University. Some data on the life of prosector C.L. Homburg (who died in 1833) are known to us from notes and letters of Goethe and Loder. Loder had employed the former Berlin student of surgery and barber's assistant to model for him anatomic samples for demonstration and anatomic illustrations and also for his collection. When Loder followed a call to Halle and took his collection of specimens along with him, his successor in Jena had to set up another collection which came under ducal administration. Homburg gave him a helping hand, under Goethe's vigilant control. Loder sold his collection to Russia, some time later, and had an Anatomic Theatre built in Moscow for its accommodation and for anatomic lectures. For that purpose, he called Homburg from Jena and praised him in his public inauguration speech. Two sons and one grandson of Homburg are known to have worked as prosectors, as well, in Moscow, Kharkov, and Kazan.
Anatomy↗
["Utterances of pure experience." The reflection of Hippocratic thought in Goethe's poetry].
Many important treatises attributed to the founder of medical science and now united in the HIPPOCRATIC CORPUS, the body of Hippocrates' books, interested Goethe throughout his life, influenced his view of the world and stimulated his poetic work. Johann Georg Zimmermann's (1728-1795) perception of Hippocrates had a particularly profound effect and induced Goethe to consider Hippocrates' heritage from the "experience" aspect as a model of how man should consider the world and . . . record its events for posterity'. He studied Hippocrates' Airs, Waters and Places, which deals with environmental factors, and the treatise On Regimen especially thoroughly. Goethe's study of the experience expressed in Hippocrates' Aphorisms was particularly fruitful for his "Wilhelm Meister". His reflections on the link between theory and practice, particularly in relation to the natural sciences, are also considered.
Germany↗
[Ars medica Anhaltina (V): Physicians and scientists of the Anhalt territories in Goethe's circle of friends].
From the view of regional history for the Anhaltine territory several medical and natural scientists are to be mentioned whom a remarkable role can be ascribed in the Weimarian circle round Goethe. The Bernburg physician and pharmaceutist Bucholz became there for many years his consultee for questions of natural sciences; Gren, who also came from Bernburg, became the antipode in the dispute about problems of optics. Goethe visited Gilbert, who was educated in Dessau, in his laboratory in Halle. In old age the poet was supported as physician and friend by Carl Vogel, born in Dessau, who described Goethe's last disease.
Coronary Disease↗
Goethe's Archetype and the romantic concept of the self.
This paper attempts to illuminate Goethe's concept of an archetype by setting it alongside the concept of the self that was being articulated at the same time, also by writers of the Romantic movement. The Romantic concept of the self expresses a new concept of the self as a 'core' plus an expression of the core: and it is the same 'core plus expression' idea that is embodied in the Goethean archetype. Goethe's archetype is not simply a 'plan'. It is a kind of agent at the heart of a thing, striving for self expression, and to this end driving the thing's development. Both Romantic self and archetype reflect the wider attempt to reinstate the concept of action in our understanding of things and happenings in general. The root idea of there being at the heart of a living thing an agent pursuing a goal remains in the modern concept of the organism.
Biology↗