German Studies Department, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2020 Aug 27;42(3):39. doi: 10.1007/s40656-020-00331-0.
The new mythology for which the German Romantic period called was not envisioned as antithetical to empiricism or experiential/experimental knowledge, but rather as emerging in dialogue with it to form a cultural foundation for such inquiry. Central to the mytho-scientific project were problematic theories of sexual division and generativity that established cultural baselines. This article examines the mythological investments of two influential thinkers of the period-Goethe and Schelling. It then analyzes Goethe's unique merger of mythological approaches to sex and generation with empirical observation in The Metamorphosis of Plants. It next traces Schelling's expansion of Goethe's theories of nature beyond their empirical justifications to develop a metaphysics of sexual differentiation. Finally, the article illuminates Goethe's final reply to the sexual dynamics of Naturphilosophie at the end of his life, through the analysis of a single poem, "Finding Again," in the collection God and World. Ultimately and in spite of its empirical commitments, Goethe's more flexible view of sexual correlations would lose ground to the powerful metaphysical mythology of sexual opposition as both scientific and cultural bedrock.
德国浪漫主义时期所呼唤的新神话并不是与经验主义或经验/实验知识相对立的，而是在与它对话中形成这种探究的文化基础。神话-科学项目的核心是有问题的性别的划分和生殖理论，它们确立了文化基准。本文考察了该时期两位有影响力的思想家——歌德和谢林——的神话投入。然后，它分析了歌德在《植物变形记》中将神话方法与性和生殖与经验观察独特地融合在一起。接下来，谢林将歌德关于自然的理论从经验论证扩展到发展性别的形而上学。最后，本文通过分析诗集《神与世界》中的一首诗《再次发现》，阐明了歌德在生命尽头对自然哲学性动力的最终回应。尽管它具有经验承诺，但歌德对性相关性的更灵活的看法将输给作为科学和文化基础的强大的性对立的形而上学神话。
