ABSTRACT
KANT and Goethe are distinct opposites—Kant, who concentrates on theories and increasingly retires from life, and Goethe, who prides himself that he has “never thought about thinking,” 1 and who takes part in practical activities all his life. Nevertheless, their decisive basic attitude is the same, and they struggle for the liberation of man in the same way. The clearer Goethe becomes about himself, the better does he recognize those fundamental principles of his life which are in complete accordance with Kant's philosophy. He, too, knows the limits of human thought. He tries untiringly to find “the centre of nature and freedom,” “the mean between nature and subject,” in order to ascertain the scope of his freedom of thought and action, and to make all the results of his thought and activity consistent with the nature of the human mind. He rejects the searching for the “immense and inconceivable” 2 as decidedly as the “lively quest for the cause.”
