David Wellbery (UChicago German, Social Thought) joins us to discuss Goethe’s work, life, and milieu. He describes Goethe’s position at the center of an intellectual and artistic world which included Schiller, Hölderlin, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, the Schlegels, the Humboldts, and many other intellectual and scientific figures of the period. He also explains some of Goethe’s administrative responsibilities, carried out with incredible energy and efficiency: from the oversight of the University of Jena to the directorship of a mining operation in Weimar. This episode will give listeners a sense of Goethe’s astonishingly various achievements in literature and natural philosophy. David also describes his own hopes for the humanities via an idea of world literature.
LISTEN
RECOMMENDED READING
A New History of German Literature
by David Wellbery (Editor) (Author), Judith Ryan (Editor) (Author)
The Specular Moment: Goethe’s Early Lyric and the Beginnings of Romanticism
by David E. Wellbery (Author)
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author), Eric A. Blackall (Translator), Victor Lange (Translator), David E. Wellbery (Introduction)
Selected Poems and Fragments
by Friedrich Hölderlin (Author), Jeremy Adler (Editor), Michael Hamburger (Translator, Preface, Introduction)
On the Aesthetic Education of Man
by Friedrich Schiller (Author), Alexander Schmidt (Editor, Introduction), Keith Tribe (Translator)
Wilhelm Tell
by Friedrich von Schiller (Author), Kenneth J. Northcott (Editor), William F. Mainland (Translator)
Complete Poetical Works and Plays of Friedrich Schiller
by Friedrich von Schiller (Author)
Aesthetical and Philosophical Essays
by Friedrich Schiller (Author), Nathan Haskell Dole (Translator)
Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte
by Johann Gottlieb Fichte (Author)
Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings (1797-1800)
by Johann Gottlieb Fichte (Author), Daniel Breazeale (Translator)
Foundations of Natural Right based on Principles of the Science of Knowledge
by Johann Gottlieb Fichte (Author), Hester Shemmon (Translator)
Addresses to the German Nation
by Johann Gottlieb Fichte (Author), Isaac Nakhimovsky (Translator), Bela Kapossy (Translator), Keith Tribe (Translator)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The Phenomenology of Spirit
Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel (Author), Terry Pinkard (Editor), Michael Baur (Editor, Translator)
Goethe’s Botanical Writings
by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (Author)
The Metamorphosis of Plants
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Author), Gordon L. Miller (Photographer, Introduction)
Philosophical Fragments
by Friedrich Schlegel (Author), Peter Firchow (Translator), Rodolphe Gasche (Foreword)
The Philosophy of History
by Friedrich von Schlegel (Author)
The Philosophy of Life and Language
by Friedrich von Schlegel (Author), A. J. W. Morrison (Translator)
Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature
by August Wilhelm Schlegel (Author), John Black (Translator)
Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent
by Jason Wilson (Adapter, Translator, Introduction), Alexander von Humboldt (Author), Malcolm Nicolson (Introduction)
Views of Nature
by Alexander von Humboldt (Author), Stephen T. Jackson (Editor), Laura Dassow Walls (Editor), Mark W. Person (Translator)
Selected Writings of Alexander von Humboldt
by Alexander von Humboldt (Author), Andrea Wulf (Editor)
The Limits of State Action
by Wilhelm von Humboldt (Author), J. W. Burrow (Editor)
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man
by Johann Gottfried von Herder (Author), David G Payne (Editor)
Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings
by Johann Gottfried Herder (Author), Ioannis D. Evrigenis (Translator, Introduction), Daniel Pellerin (Translator, Introduction)
RESOURCES
Hölderlin Center in the Villa Wertheimber
The North American Fichte Society
North American Schelling Society
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Hegel Society of America (HSA)
Kritisches Journal der Philosophie
Friedrich Schelling, Georg Hegel (editors)