Reflections On The Natural Philosophy Of Goethe

Lichtenberg, the German philosopher and physicist, once remarked: “It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.” Goethe, coeval with Lichtenberg, possessed by the conviction that he too was the bearer of truth, recked not whose beard was...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy (London) 1951-01, Vol.26 (96), p.69-84
Main Author: Yourgrau, Wolfgang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Determinism
Mathematics
Maxims
Natural philosophy
Nature
Phenomena
Physical theory
Physics
Plants
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Lichtenberg, the German philosopher and physicist, once remarked: “It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.” Goethe, coeval with Lichtenberg, possessed by the conviction that he too was the bearer of truth, recked not whose beard was singed. Between his scientific attitude and his philosophic insight, however, a contradiction was patent, as revealed in his maxim that truth is a torch and that it is only with blinking eyes that we try to get past it, whilst in actual terror of being burnt.
ISSN:0031-8191
1469-817X
DOI:10.1017/S0031819100019215