Essay On Goethe's Prometheus

In this paper I will briefly analyze Goethe’s Prometheus in search of evidence to support Goethe’s leanings one way or another on matters of generation. The discussion of generation will be guided exclusively by the Haller-Wolff debate, citing each thinker’s position on generation: epigenesis versus preformation. Once Goethe’s position has been decided on, I will compare that conclusion to his position on the debate to that which is suggested by his other works, namely The Metamorphosis of Plants and The Formative Impulse. As I will develop in this paper, I claim that in Prometheus, Goethe suggests a rejection of preformation in accordance with ideas expressed in his other works. Before I can substantiate this claim, I must first provide background on both Goethe and the Haller-Wolff debate. Goethe was a German intellectual, writing countless works ranging from poetry, drama, critiques, and scientific writings on botany, color, anatomy. Goethe was educated in Leipzig, Strasbourg, and Frankfurt, experiencing influence from Johann Herder, who helped shaped his intellectual development, along with Friedrich Schiller. Some of Goethe’s most notable writings include his novel, The Sorrows of Young

His views were more reflective of what had long been the norm. He believed that an organism in the embryonic stage was fully formed with all its parts, but simply grew in size. This agreed with Christian creationist thinking, further fueling the rejection of epigenesis as heretical. This reflected not only Haller’s religious beliefs but his Newtonian mechanism, in contrast with Wolff’s rationalism (Roe 89). Although preformation was on the decline, it was still held tight by Haller and others. The core of the debate can be summed up simply: epigeneticists believed the embryo developed its parts over time and preformationists believed the parts were already created by God and only grew as time