Kant und Goethe

The essay contrasts the approaches of a critical philosopher and a poetic-natural thinker, tracing how modern dualisms—subject versus object, spirit versus nature, mechanistic science versus valuative meaning—arose and reshaped cultural life. It surveys materialistic and spiritualistic reactions and outlines two mediating conceptions that aim at unity: a transcendental framework that locates objectivity in the conditions of cognition, and an organic, aesthetic perspective that finds coherence and value in living nature. Through comparative analysis it considers how these outlooks affect notions of freedom, normativity, and the possibility of reconciling scientific explanation with lived significance.