Urtier, Urpflanze, Urphänomen: Goethe’s contributions to the Natural Sciences and Philosophy

Abstract

We attempt in this paper to present the development and internal nexus of the leading three ideas in Goethe’s scientific endeavours: Urtier, Urpflanze and Urphänomen. By doing so we may very well be threading a path for which Goethe himself did not seem to have shown much interest, since, as he liked to repeat, he lacked an organ for philosophy. Still, our goal is to contribute to the philosophical understanding of Goethe’s role in the configuration and organization of the spirit of contradiction through which he and Herder tried to shake to its grounds the intellectual scenario of late 18^thcentury in the not yet so modern German states, a scenario characterized either by a peaceful slumber, self-alienation or direct import from modern ideas coming from Scottland or Paris. Goethe pretends to have diligently overcome Camper and the all the fixists in Zoology, Linnaeus in Botany and Newton in Optics. Those are no meagre deeds. And through them he opened doors and windows for a new concept of natural history – a truly historical one – no longer imprisoned within Leibniz’s continuity principle: a concept for which time and experimentation (without anticipation) truly matter. In this sense, it will not be difficult to observe, or at least suggest, the many ways in which Goethe’s scientific works may have had a central role in the configuration of Hegels insights into Nature and History.