Urphänomen (Original/Primordial Phenomenon)

Abstract

The concept of Urphänomen (original, archetypal, or primordial phenomenon) is central to Goethe’s scientific studies. The neologism designates a phenomenon that is both real (experienced) and ideal (conceptualized). Thus, it testifies to Goethe’s specific epistemological mediation between idealism and empiricism and opens onto a notion of intuitive understanding. The term belongs in the context of Goethe’s theory of colors and accordingly leads avant la lettre to the optical writings of the 1790s. Furthermore, the term appears in the context of Goethe’s biological writings as well as in geognostic and meteorological considerations. In the Maximen und Reflexionen (Maxims and Reflections) as in the conversations with Eckermann, the Urphänomen is deployed in ethical and aesthetic spheres. The Urphänomen derives from an “Erfahrung höherer Art” (experience of a higher kind) and is defined as a phenomenon acquired through progressive experience, to which the variety of related appearances may in turn be referred step by step. Once recognized, the Urphänomen can serve as a key to further insights through its synthetic mediation of theoretical idea and empirical knowledge. This epistemic function renders it ambiguous because, on the one hand, it denotes a mental construct that allows for the cognition of further phenomena and, on the other hand, it simultaneously denotes an empirical experience in its Urform (primordial form).