Atomism
A Counterpoint Tradition in Goethe's Writings
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16004107 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karl J Fink (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 377-377 |
| Publication date | 1980-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Eighteenth-Century Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-2586 • E-ISSN: 1086-315X |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2738082 |
| OpenAlex | W2334808822 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
IT IS PARADOXICAL that human life is subject to chance and accident, while at the same time showing signs of law and order. The maturation of an individual, wrote Goethe, is fraught with false starts, obscure directions, hidden forces, and sudden failure. Yet alongside these unpredictable events there is evidence of patterns that make life seem preordained and events stereotyped. This interplay of design and chance in human life is a central message in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795-96), a novel whose origins and sequel preoccupied Goethe most of his life.2 Indeed, the novel illustrates Goethe's belief that human life, when observed under any imaginable conditions, would sometimes show p?roportional and mathematical harmony and other times divisive and confused agitation: Gesetz und Zufall greifen in einander . . . und hier liegt das Inkalkulable, das Inkommensurable der Weltge
Art · Atomism · Counterpoint · Epistemology · Literature · Pedagogy · Sociology · German Literature and Culture Studies · Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Hegel · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.02 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1982 - 1982 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |