“Goethe: A life in ideas is a long book reflecting on a long life and a significant body of writings, and yet it is beautifully focused on doing what it does well, backed by engagement with Goethe scholarship and the writings of those with whom Goethe engages.”
Wallpaper map of west Cornwall in a stairwell
Proper job!
Come for the war, stay for the chickening out (🤞)
Nice civilization you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.
Come for the war, stay for the chickening out (🤞)
Agreed. It’s all a bit effing tedious. Think people are just being a bit too performative.
And the bread. Don’t forget the bread. The four things that are better in Germany than anywhere else are: sausages, bread, lager and Riesling.
Alex, I'm interested to know why you don't include philosophy of science in your list of disciplines that have a view on what makes science special. Not trying to be confrontational; just interested in what the rationale is.
Apologies if the link above doesn't work. Instead, try dublincityfm.ie/shows/bookbo... and look for the broadcast on 19 March
Me being interviewed by the excellent Paul O'Doherty on his show Bookbound on Dublin City FM www.mixcloud.com/1032D.../boo...
@princetonupress.bsky.social
“It remains to hope that a German translation will soon follow, as from now on Bell is the new standard.”
Review of my 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas' in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' @princetonupress.bsky.social www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...
... and used it in the 'Von deutscher Baukunst' essay.
And then there’s also Batteux’s theory of ‘la belle nature’, which has the artist’s subjectivity reorganizing impressions into beautiful simulacra of the ways things are. Goethe liked Batteux’s theory a lot (41-42, 73-78) ...
Before his friendship with Schiller, Goethe had already developed this idea in his 1789 essay ‘Simple Imitation of Nature, Manner, Style’ (224).
Actually this is more Schiller than Goethe, and it derives from Schiller’s reading of Kant. The work of the artist is to imbue matter with form, in the same way as nature does.
But obvs this has nothing to do with art until Goethe and Schiller became friends in 1794 and developed a new doctrine of beauty, according to which perfection in art consists in a perfect balance of form and content (309-16).
Another of the Goethean ideas Ruskin could be referring to is the (also Aristotelian) idea that matter is infused with a shaping idea or form (hylomorphism). Goethe reached this view during his geological studies in the early 1780s. (See Goethe: A Life in Ideas, 168-70, 651-55).
Yes, that's a Goethe on Gothic architecture.
Here. It would help to know who is ascribing this view to Goethe and where?
Quite a surprise how NZ bossed the game.
= Rowan Williams
Today’s Observer
@princetonupress.bsky.social
That was looking so good for Pakistan until the last few overs. 6 wickets in 12 balls! Tragi-comical.
@princetonupress.bsky.social
Tempted to have a cheeky flutter on England to win?
Oh no, just checked the odds. Forget it.
The cover page of Matthew Bell's 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas', showing a marble bust of Goethe
The first translation of 'Goethe: A Life in Ideas' is on the horizon. Into Portuguese -- we have a publisher in Brazil!
