The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe by Robert J. Richards (review)

Abstract

1090 Reviews illuminating pun in his enquiries. Thus, on the controversial Urfaust lines 1147-49, we read: 'An die Stelle dieser unmoglichen Namengebung, setzt Faust die Nahme, nicht die Nahme des Namens, sondern die reine Nahme' (p. 163). The result is a series of questions that have not so far enjoyed the full attention of the experts. 'To whom is Faust dedicated?' is one example. Yet the manner in which this is answered will perplex those readers who might legitimately expect a straightforward riposte. Brandes provides a lengthy excursus on the connotations of the verbs equating to 'give' in the diffuse Maori, Melanesian, and Papuan tongues, seemingly oblivious to the basic fact that there is no single 'papuanische Sprache' (p. 49), but around 700 distinct and unrelated idioms. Here and elsewhere Brandes strays beyond the pale of his chosen research area, with the object of testing the thin boundary between the acts of giving and taking, something that might have been achieved without reference to Austronesian semantics. That he chose to do so is a result of his commitment to viewing literature not merely as intertextual but also as intercultural, a perspective that is mostly stimulating and occasionally frustrating. University of Kent Osman Durrani The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe. By Robert J.Richards. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2002. xix + 57ipp. $35. ISBN 0-226-71210-9. Robert J.Richards's major study ofthe Romantic conception of lifesets out to demon? strate at least three complex points: first,the interactions between life and work in the early German Romantics; second, that Goethe was a Romantic; third, that Darwin was influenced by Romantic Naturphilosophie, and that his theory of evolution is continuous with it. Thus, Richards has set himself a truly interdisciplinary and comprehensive task for which he deserves praise. The difficultyof his undertaking becomes apparent when one thinks of the conceptual, philosophical, and scholarly difficulties implied in this combination of questions concerning autobiography and notions of subjectivity, the possible meanings of Romanticism, and Goethe's convoluted relationships with the personages of his times (and thus his complex position with respect to its various movements, however constructed). Not least, there are the questions surrounding the emergence of biology and the shiftsin scientific paradigms from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, and in particular as to the true nature of Darwinian evolution. The firstpart of the book deals with some of the main figuresand ideas of early Ger? man Romanticism (the Schlegels, Novalis, Caroline Bohmer, Fichte, Schleiermacher, and Schelling), the second introduces the scientific conceptions of the 'Romantic' conception of life (Blumenbach, Kant, Kielmeyer, Reil, and, again, Schelling), and the third is on Goethe and his 'genius forpoetry,morphology, and women' (subtitle). The middle chapter is about half as long as the firstand last, and the epilogue on the 'fundamental ways in which Romantic thought gave shape to Darwin's conception of nature and evolution' (p. xix) is even shorter. Overall, Richards's intention is 'to show how concepts of self, along with aesthetic and moral considerations?all tempered by personal relationships?gave complementary shape to biological representations of nature' (p. xviii). The study's principal strengths and weaknesses can be shown by discussing some exemplary points from the main thematic areas, concentrating on the Goethe chapter and the epilogue. Richards provides the reader with an introduction to Goethe's life and to his work on morphology, hinged on the Italian journey as a turning point in his life, another less pronounced one being his growing autobiographical interests. MLRy 99.4, 2004 1091 Richards discusses all central texts on plant and animal morphology in detail, whereas surprisingly (given Goethe's notion of morphology as a universal science), there is an almost total neglect ofthe Farbenlehre, and ofhis work in geology. This has important consequences. The theory of colour is Goethe's mature expression of his philosophy and history of science. Yet Richards does not consider the 'autobiographical turn' much in this context, nor does he take notice of the crucial importance of Goethe's instruction for the employment of theory 'to use a bold expression?with irony' (p. 439 n.), or of...