This collection of Steiner's introductions to Goethe's works re-visions the meaning of knowledge and how we attain it. Goethe had discovered how thinking could be applied to organic nature and that this experience requires not just rational concepts but a whole new way of perceiving. In an age when science and technology have been linked to great catastrophes, many are looking for new ways to interact with nature. With a fundamental declaration of the interpenetration of our consciousness and the world around us, Steiner shows how Goethe's approach points the way to a more compassionate and intimate involvement with nature.
of him in like measure within myself, that is my highest wish. This noble individual was not conscious of the fact that at that very moment the divine within him and the divine of the universe were most intimately united. So, for Goethe, the resonance with a natural rationality seems part of the genius of modern science. Einstein's 'cosmic religion', which reflects Spinoza, also echoes Goethe's remark (Ibid. , Item 575 from 1829): Man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible. Else he would give up investigating. But how far will Goethe share the devotion of these cosmic rationalists to the beautiful harmonies of mathematics, so distant from any pure and 'direct observation'? Kepler, Spinoza, Einstein need not, and would not, rest with discovery of a pattern within, behind, as a source of, the phenomenal world, and they would not let even the most profound of descriptive generalities satisfy scientific curiosity. For his part, Goethe sought fundamental archetypes, as in his intuition of a Urpjlanze, basic to all plants, infinitely plastic. When such would be found, Goethe would be content, for (as he said to Eckermann, Feb. 18, 1829): . . . to seek something behind (the Urphaenomenon) is futile. Here is the limit. But as a rule men are not satisfied to behold an Urphaenomenon. They think there must be something beyond. They are like children who, having looked into a mirror, turn it around to see what is on the other side.
Despite his fame Paracelsus remains an illusive character. As this volume points out it is somewhat of a paradox that the fascination with Paracelsus and his ideas has remained so widespread when it is born in mind that it is far from clear what exactly he contributed to medicine and natural philosophy. But perhaps it is exactly this enigma which through the ages has made Paracelsus so attractive to such a variety of people who all want to claim him as an advocate for their particular ideas. The first section of this book deals with the historiography surrounding Paracelsus and Paracelsianism and points to the need of reclaiming the man and his ideas in their proper historical context. A further two sections are concerned with the different religious, social and political implications of Paracelsianism and its medical and natural philosophical significance respectively.
Goethe researcher Katharine Mommsen draws the reader into the fascinating life of Germany's greatest literary genius, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). We discover how ordinary items such as the food we eat or the beverages we drink, and everyday activities like hiking, ice-skating, horseback riding, dancing the waltz, and music-making acquire fresh meaning within Goethe's own pantheistic life philosophy. He directed his wisdom toward keeping body and soul healthy, lively, focused, and strong as a basis for a fuller life - for him it became an essential part of the poet's worldly gospel. This book which is composed around hundreds of excerpts from Goethe's works, correspondences and conversations transcends biography, and shows us the poet's art of living in its richness in wit and wisdom, goodness, and love for humanity.
The Black & White printed book connects you to the essence of knowledge. Each Lesson in this unique book is a step to your awakening, a compilation of wisdom to support you to live your most empowered, fulfilled, abundant, and optimum life. Imagine a book that opens a window on a hidden world that is the key to what is beyond what we see and know. An Invisible World revealed in front of your own eyes. Now imagine a book with astonishing images in three different wavelengths and light frequencies that illuminate your soul and create instantaneous uplifting healing effects. Lastly, imagine a book that you can open to any page, and see the exact right message for you at that moment to provide guidance and wisdom. This book encompasses our life's journey. It is a call to raise our consciousness and vibrations. Its purpose is to guide us to reunite with Spirit. It awakens our inner wisdom, helping us to transcend limiting thoughts, beliefs, and habits. Each lesson in this book has a purpose. The purpose is to awaken reunion with our Soul. As we polish ourselves as a diamond, we grow; we shine through our physical existence. Life is a school, a constant learning. All those who come into your life are meant to be your teachers. Every soul enables the opportunity to mirror you. This inspirational and transformational book reveals to us, through its images and their hidden messages, our Light, which is so greatly needed in these times of great changes. Jacqueline Ripstein's Art has changed the lives of thousands of people; her Art has been tested and proven by Internationally renowned scientists to be an instrument to help us heal and ascend in Consciousness. You are much more than your eyes can see. Discover your Invisible World and the perfection within it. Your thoughts, emotions, and feelings arise from the Invisible World and are manifested into this physical, material world.
The first book to examine Goethe's writings on the daemonic in relation to both Classical philosophy and German Idealism. For Plato, the daemonic is a sensibility that brings individuals into contact with divine knowledge; Socrates was also inspired by a "divine voice" known as his "daimonion." Goethe was introduced to this ancient concept by Hamannand Herder, who associated it with the aesthetic category of genius. This book shows how the young Goethe depicted the idea of daemonic genius in works of the Storm and Stress period, before exploring the daemonic in a series of later poetic and autobiographical works. Reading Goethe's works on the daemonic through theorists such as Lukács, Benjamin, Gadamer, Adorno, and Blumenberg, Nicholls contends that they contain arguments concerning reason, nature, and subjectivity that are central to both European Romanticism and the Enlightenment. Angus Nicholls is Claussen-Simon Foundation Research Lecturer in German and Comparative Literature at the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations in the Department of German, Queen Mary, University of London.
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Economist and Kirkus Reviews This “splendid biography” (Wall Street Journal) of Goethe presents his life and work as an essential touchstone for the modern age. A masterful intellectual portrait, Goethe: Life as a Work of Art is celebrated as the seminal twenty-first-century biography of the writer considered to be the Shakespeare of German literature. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), a remarkably prolific poet, playwright, novelist, and—as Rüdiger Safranksi emphasizes—a statesman and naturalist, first awakened not only a burgeoning German nation but the European continent with his electrifying novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Safranski has scoured Goethe’s entire oeuvre, relying exclusively on primary sources, including his correspondence with contemporaries, to produce a “fresh and authentic” (Economist) portrait of the avatar of the Romantic era. Skillfully blending “artistic analysis with swift, sharp renderings” of the great political and intellectual figures Goethe encountered, “[Safranski’s] portrait of the prolific genius leaves the reader with lasting awe, even envy” of a monumental legacy (The New Yorker). As Safranski ultimately shows, Goethe’s greatest creation, even in comparison to his masterpiece Faust, was his own life.
