Description
Book SynopsisThe present volume is the first to address the interrelationship between Goethe’s scientific thought and work, his ideas on art and literary oeuvre, and chaos and complexity theories. The eleven studies assembled in it treat one or more elements or aspects of this interrelationship, ranging from basic concepts all the way to a model of an aesthetic-scientific methodology. In the process, the authors scrutinize chaos and complexity both as motif and motor of literary texts and nature within various contexts of past and present. The volume should be of interest to literary scholars, scientists, and philosophers of science, indeed, to all those who are interested in the continuities between the humanities and sciences, culture and nature.
Table of ContentsForeword Herbert ROWLAND: Foreword: Goethe and No End. Conceptual and Historical Parameters Floyd MERRELL: Order and Chaos, Simplicity and Complexity John A. MCCARTHY: The “Pregnant Point”: Goethe on Complexity, Interdisciplinarity, and Emergence. Goethe’s Science and a Goethean (Philosophy of) Science Gabrielle BERSIER: Goethe’s Geology in Flux: Vulcanism and Neptunism in the Translation of Richard Payne Knight’s Expedition into Sicily and the Italian Journey. Astrida ORLE TANTILLO: Goethe’s Evolutionary Thinking Richard HAGLUND: Visualization and Emergence in Contemporary Physics Tom MELLETT: Goethean Science: Bringing Chaos to Order by Looking Phenomena Right in the I Bruce K. KIRCHOFF: Aspects of a Goethean Science: Complexity and Holism in Science and Art Goethe’s Scientific Thought and His Art Karl J. FINK: Goethe’s Intensified Border James M. van der LAAN: Faust and Textual Chaos Nicholas RENNIE: Between Pascal and Mallarmé: Faust’s Speculative Moment Steven D. MARTINSON: Organizing Chaos: “Organisation” in Herder and Goethe’s Werther and Faust Roundtable Discussion Reactions and Reflections Bibliography General Bibliography of Works Cited Figures
