ABSTRACT
The concept of the fruitful error can perhaps be best illustrated by a well-known example from the world of science. The advantage of error for Montaigne, Goethe, and Maurice Barres inter alios is that digressions as fruitful errors are further steps on the path to self-knowledge and personal fulfilment. A parallel can be proposed between the characteristic contours identified by Cave and the notion of digression as fruitful error: the detour or digression may have no clear telos, but it does aim for a fuller representation of experience. The notion of fruitful error may seem to be a contradiction in terms: if an error proves to be fruitful, then surely it is not really an error at all, but simply a detour as opposed to a dead end. Whether one sees Goethe's varied activities as mistakes or detours ultimately becomes simply a question of terminology: each term supports the view of the fruitful error.
