Goethe's Natural Philosophy with Dr. Jan Kerkmann (Freiburg University).

The Following video is a continuation of my series on Classical German Philosophy and Post-Kantian Thought. The title of today's episode is: Goethe's Natural Philosophy with Dr. Jan Kerkmann (Freiburg University).

In this episode of: The Young Idealist Series, I invited Dr. Jan Kerkman who is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Freiburg. Dr. Kerkmann is also currently a Feodor Lynen Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation based at the Freie Universität Berlin. I knew Dr. Kerkmann would be an excellent guest for this episode due to his diverse research areas which includes: the systematic study of metaphysics and the history of philosophy (especially ancient philosophy, early modern philosophy and philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries). Dr. Kerkmann's other areas of interest include political philosophy and the philosophy of nature.

Dr. Kerkmann also focuses on Plato, Plotinus, Hobbes, Spinoza, Berkeley, Goethe, Schelling, Hölderlin, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger making him a perfect guest to participate in this series.

Dr. Jan Kerkmann explains why Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749-1832) complex natural philosophy matters for today; and helps navigate the viewer lucidly through several complex, philosophical, and metaphysical concepts.

Our discussion leads to a detailed analysis of Goethe's main influences on his conception of Nature. We also delve deep into all of Goethe's critical commentary on Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Dr. Kerkmann also discusses Goethe's own modern reading of Spinoza. This leads us into a unique discussion on Negative theology and Nature's divine ground. Dr. Kerkmann also shows how revolutionary Goethe was for his time responding to the likes of Newton and Blumenbach.

The Questions and Concepts in our discussion center around Dr. Kerkmann's reading of Goethe's Natural Philosophy. From his own published work, "Divine Ground and Vertical Level Order: On the Metaphysical Foundation of Goethe's Conception of Nature." In: Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy (published in 2023). By Jan Kerkmann. Link: https://www.academia.edu/97638671/Div...

Is Goethe's natural philosophy mainly Idealist and speculative? or empirical-experimental? Dr. Kerkmann expands on this distinction offering his own Hermeneutics of Nature which extends Goethe project into the arts and sciences.

We then turn to Goethe's Dualistic forces in nature: i). Laws of Polarity and ii). Intensification. This leads us to discuss Goethe's natural philosophy as a Vertical structure of Nature that is grounded on a system of hypostases. Goethe's own Hermeneutical structures has many building blocks through a diverse network of systems such as: Kantian, Neo-Platonic, Spinozist, and Kabbalistic, and adds a modern Deleuzian reference to the mix.

Dr. Kerkman explicates Goethe theory of the "Urphänomen" and “Bildungstrieb." We end the video with a discussion of Goethe's Divine conception of Nature.

Dr. Jan Kerkmann's most recent book publications are the following:

Der Gott dieser Welt: Die Entstehung und Wirklichkeit des Bösen bei Augustinus und Schelling (Wissenschaftliche Beiträge aus dem Tectum Verlag published in 2024

Unendliches Bewusstsein: Berkeleys Idealismus und dessen kritische Weiterentwicklung bei Kant und Schopenhauer Published in 2023 by De Gruyter.

Die Zeit des Willens und das Ende der Metaphysik: Heideggers Auseinandersetzung mit Nietzsche und Schelling Published in 2020 by De Gruyter. And many more on Heidegger, and Nietzsche, Heraclitus,

Enjoy the Episode.

Dr. Jan Kerkmann:

https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en...

https://uni-freiburg.academia.edu/Jan...