On the Subject of Goethe: Hermann von Helmholtz on Goethe and Scientific Objectivity

Abstract

In their recent book, Objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galisonoppose the image of the scientist as a rational, objective, anddispassionate investigator of nature with that of the intuitivelyguided and emotionally volatile artistic genius. The authors arguethat the emergence of objectivity as an epistemic virtue innineteenth-century scientific practices was intimately tied to anewly perceived threat to knowledge: that of the subjective self.In their discussion, Daston and Galison cite the artist’s creativeimposition of ideas on the world as quintessentially subjective andopposed to science.