Romanticism, Hellenism, and the Philosophy of Nature by William S. Davis

Author:William S. Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

The task of self-consciousness is to transform the “raw material” of the phenomenological world into meaningful form. Great (classical) artists must move beyond this basic condition of ontology, however, competing with nature itself, to produce organic forms, that is, works that are themselves creative and that engender further creativity. The word wirkenendes is of significance here, as wirken can mean both “to produce” as well as “to bring forth an effect.” The classical artist does not create objects that have a merely superficial effect, but works that are “spiritually organic,” that themselves have transformative powers. Thinking again of Goethe’s “Weltseele,” we find this very notion of life-engendering creativity through effecting (wirken) the transformation of unformed matter (“raw material”) into harmonious form in the imperative of lines 13 and 14:

Ihr greifet rasch nach ungeformten Erden

Und wirket schöpfrisch jung

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