On the Epistemology of phantasia: Goethean Science Between Empirical Inquiry and Phantasmatic Vision as Epitomized in the poem Eins und Alles (1821)

Abstract

The fact that Goethe – in his posture that is essentially philosophical (and, it must be stressed, not weltanschaulich) – employs analogy as cognitive method and tool in both the scientific and the poetic field, is by now widely and uncontroversially acknowledged in Goethean scholarship. Therefore, what this essay first aims to demonstrate, is not so much the functioning of the analogical process as it takes shape in Goethe, but rather its phantasmatic origin – that is, to show the consubstantiality of imagination (phantasia) and analogy. The objective is thus to situate more precisely the role of imagination within Goethe’s epistemological horizon, reaffirming the centrality of analogically operating imagination alongside conceptual logic. In the second and final part of the essay, the intention is to read Goethe’s philosophical poem Eins und Alles (One and All) as an epitome of his philosophical posture. By superimposing different levels of reading – one logical-conceptual, the other symbolic-phantasmatic – of the poem’s second stanza, which stages the alleged confrontation between Weltseele (world soul) and Weltgeist (world spirit), the essay seeks to put into practice the theory of Goethe’s scientific approach and thereby assess its epistemological value within the poetic space.