Goethe “Living nature”: * see Endnote 42

Goethe advanced a new scientific methodology through his scientific publications (1790 Metamorphosis of Plants).  He reacted against the growing narrow specialization in science with its emphasis on accumulating data in a mechanical & arbitrary manner, devoid of human values and human development.  In Botany we see the Linnaean taxonomy of plants, which to Goethe appeared artificial, mechanistic, a classification of outer form only.  While such methodologies worked well with inert nature (physics, chemistry) it was less successful in understanding nature (biology, botany, zoology)

 

Wilhelm Meister:

second novel by Goethe (1795); about formation of character, a story of education and disillusionment.  It is the classic coming-of-age tale, but is also a novel of ideas ranging across literature, philosophy and politics, a masterpiece that resists all pigeonholing

 

Wahrheit und Dichtug:

From my Life: Poetry and Truth; autobiography by Goethe (1811 & 1833) from the poet's childhood to 1775, when he was about to leave for Weimar.  He wrote it from the point of view of the scientist, the historian and the artist.  As a scientist, he wished to picture his life as developing stage by stage “according to those laws which we observe in the metamorphosis of the plants.” As a historian, he portrayed the general conditions of the times and revealed the relations between them and the individual

 

Battle of Valmy:

(1792) first major victory of Revolutionary France in War of the First Coalition (following the 1789 revolution).  Prussian troops led by the Duke of Brunswick marched on Paris.  Generals Kellermann and Dumouriez stopped the advance near the northern village of Valmy in Champagne-Ardenne.    The outcome was unexpected by contemporary observers; the revolutionary government was unproven.  It was a vindication for the French revolutionaries & a stunning defeat for the vaunted Prussian army and became a huge psychological victory for the Revolution at large.