Goethe and the Art of Living
Goethe represents the summit of living a cultured life, he was the Supreme Genius of Western, Faustian Civilization.
Like, the great Earl of Shaftesbury, Goethe understood that Virtue, Truth and Beauty are the same concept, but are called different things based on the context: Morality, Science and Art. This sense of Virtue, Truth or Beauty is an innate, inborn instinct, inherited from Nature. Goethe calls this Bildung. What Goethe is most concerned with is not final aims, but the creative principles with which life itself is expressed.
In his seminal work “The Metamorphosis of Plants”, Goethe shows that all morphological aspects of a plant are determined by its leaf. The leaf is the informing principle with which all other aspects of the plant metamorphose. Goethe believed that the leaf is the basic unit of every plant and that different forms of plants arise through the expansion and contraction of leaves and of organs derived from the modification of leaves. All plant species were, therefore, variations on a single general idea.
The structure or shape of the leaf creates every type of plant, its fruit, branches, everything; is determined by the idea of leaf. Leaf is just the expansion and contraction of plant nectar going in and out, like the inhale/exhale principle in animals.
Every plant type is striving, through its leaf shape, to grow and become its ideal self. We can imagine every plant has a perfect, Archetype of itself it is striving to become, of course no plant attains this due to environmental forces, etc. But all plants within a type always strive for this imaginary “spiritual” ideal.
The leaf is the plant’s version of Truth.
In human realm we have an innate sense of Good, Truth and Beauty; these three Ideals are the same concept just in the different realms of Morality, Science and Art. Just like a plant through their leaf is striving for its ideal self, we as humans can only be fulfilled and happy if we strive everyday to become more like our ideal self.
Goethe says this is the meaning and purpose of life.
Strive everyday to make your real self align ever more closely to your ideal self.
Constant growth and striving towards ideal self is only way for fulfillment.
Most of the spirtual sickness we see is due to people not willing to improve themselves, they are always looking for an escape from hard work and building good habits.
Just as each plant strives to become its ideal self, so to do we need to strive to make our real self as close as possible to the ideal. It is the continuous self development that is the source of personal growth and fulfillment.