#johannwolfgangvongoethe — Public Fediverse posts

Faust review – FW Murnau’s silent masterpiece is a devilishly dazzling vision
By Peter Bradshaw

The 1926 film of Goethe’s tragic tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil remains a spectacular feat of German expressionism

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/15/faust-review-centenary-mubi

#Film #Dramafilms #Filmadaptations #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #FWMurnau #Germany #Silentfilm #Books #Culture #Europe #Worldnews #TheGuardian #PeterBradshaw

Devil in the detail: 100 years on, FW Murnau’s Faust scrapbook reveals the secrets of his silent masterpiece https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/13/how-fw-murnau-made-faust-bible-silent-film #FwMurnau #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #Film #Culture #Books

Devil in the detail: 100 years on, FW Murnau’s Faust scrapbook reveals the secrets of his silent masterpiece
By Pamela Hutchinson

A rediscovered collection of drawings and on-set photos finally reveals the intricate on-set mysteries of one of early cinema’s most gifted and secretive pioneers

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/13/how-fw-murnau-made-faust-bible-silent-film

#FWMurnau #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Film #Culture #Books #TheGuardian #PamelaHutchinson

https://www.europesays.com/si/251090/ Goethejev potovalni plašč gre na svoje lastno Italijansko potovanje #Entertainment #GoethejevaHiša #ItalijanskoPotovanje #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #SI #Slovene #Slovenia #Slovenija #Slovenščina #Zabava

https://www.europesays.com/de/1333731/ Wolf Biermann: Deutscher Liedermacher nennt Netanjahu „antisemitisch“ #"Wolf" #100164680 #100312362 #BenjaminNetanjahu #DeutschePresseAgentur #Deutschland #Entertainment #Gazastreifen #Germany #Israel #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #Unterdrückerstaat #Unterhaltung

Faust: Unravelling the Great Enigma – The Scholar with the Lamp

Faust: Unravelling the Great Enigma – Episode 12: The Scholar with the Lamp

The Earth Spirit has vanished, leaving Faust shaken and alone. He has reached toward the infinite, only to discover that he is not as great as he imagined.

And then Goethe does something wonderfully unexpected. The door opens and in walks Wagner, in his dressing gown and night-cap, carrying a lamp. Why Wagner? Why does Goethe bring this earnest scholar into Faust’s study at precisely this moment?

In The Scholar with the Lamp, we meet with a character who is easy to overlook. Wagner loves books, scholarship, and the pursuit of knowledge. Faust has devoted his life to those very things, yet he has begun to discover that knowledge alone cannot satisfy the deepest longings of the human soul.

Their conversation leads to one of the most beautiful challenges in Faust:

“But ne’er from heart to heart you’ll speak inspiring,
Save your own heart is eloquent.”

Wagner’s little lamp illuminates more than Faust’s darkened study. It asks us what it really means to learn, to understand, and finally, to make wisdom our own.

Join me for Episode 12 of Faust: Unravelling the Great Enigma as we meet The Scholar with the Lamp.

Rebecca

Excerpt from Faust, Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Bayard Taylor.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pmvPdaVG4ByNj83scU545?si=3CZZIHIySoagjA9OVXMKtA&utm_source=copy-link

https://youtu.be/w7X9p1wACVk?si=VrSABSiN-4w5-o4F

Obra científica de Goethe será lançada na USP no dia 30
- cijusp
https://jornal.usp.br/cultura/obra-cientifica-de-goethe-sera-lancada-na-usp-no-dia-30/
#Cultura #AMetamorfosedasPlantas #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #MrcioSuzuki #MarcusMazzari #PedroFernandesGall

https://www.europesays.com/si/232384/ Evropa je po desetletjih dobila državnika – a prihaja iz Kanade #Buchenwald #Europe #Evropa #EvropskaUnija #EvropskiParlament #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #Kanada #MarkCarney #Slovene #Slovenščina

Philosophy expert shares the ‘simple but profound rule’ to tell if someone is a good or bad person

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/philosophy-expert-shares-simple-but-profound-rule-to-tell-if-someone-is-a-good-or-bad-ex1/

Philosophy expert shares the ‘simple but profound rule’ to tell if someone is a good or bad person

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/philosophy-expert-shares-simple-but-profound-rule-to-tell-if-someone-is-a-good-or-bad-ex1/

Russland schließt Goethe-Institute: Es braucht jetzt europäischen Größenwahn – Kultur

Es kommt selten vor, dass die auswärtige Kulturpolitik in den Fokus der Tagespolitik rückt, aber gerade ist es…
#EuropeSays #EU #Europa #Ausland #Debatte #Europäisch #Europäische #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Kultur #Kulturpolitik #Russland #SüddeutscheZeitung
https://www.europesays.com/europa/92964/

Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma S2E11 – Climbing the Mountain Slowly

Welcome to Faust: Unravelling the Great Enigma, a journey where we read slowly, question deeply, and discover why Goethe’s masterpiece still speaks to the human heart.

What happens when we stop trying to understand Faust and simply allow it to speak?

In this episode of Faust: Unravelling the Great Enigma, I am joined by my friend Eglund, a journalist and writer from Germany, whose lifelong familiarity with Faust offers a thoughtful and deeply personal perspective on one of literature’s greatest works.

Together, we explore the life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the profound loss that shaped the writing of Faust, and why this remarkable work continues to speak to us in a world filled with uncertainty and change. As our conversation unfolds, Eglund reminds us that Faust is not a book to rush through, but a mountain to be climbed slowly, one insight at a time.

Whether you are opening Faust for the very first time or returning to it after many years, I invite you to settle in with us as we begin this journey of discovery.

We are still very near the foot of the mountain, and perhaps that is exactly where we should be. Faust is not a work to be hurried. It asks us to read slowly, to listen carefully, and to allow its questions to remain with us.

Thank you for joining Eglund and me on this journey through Faust.

Rebecca

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4dpOwg1lXE3ZoB9sRx7poj?si=5q9TNooNTamEA4BU1pwSdQ

https://youtu.be/K6jo80aV4hs?si=4jV8vhUzO-BjFfsb

Climbing the Mountain Slowly – Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: el polímata que marcó la literatura y la ciencia alemana

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, nacido el 28 de agosto de 1749 en Frankfurt, es considerado el escritor más influyente de la lengua alemana. Su vida abarcó la transición del siglo XVIII al XIX, y su obra sigue siendo un referente tanto en la literatura como…

#Akerix #IA #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #Goethe #LiteraturaAlemana
https://akerix.com/es/on-this-day/08-28-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe-1749
📷 Wikimedia Commons

Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma S2E10 – Protecting the Soul

Welcome to Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma – Protecting the Soul.

Up to this point in our Faust journey, we have followed Goethe’s restless scholar as he wrestles with knowledge, longing, and the limits of human understanding. But after The Spirit’s Refusal episode, Sarah and I realized that we weren’t simply studying Faust anymore. His questions had begun asking something of us.

Why do we always feel as though we are behind? Why is it so difficult to be content with the life we already have? Why do comparison, achievement, and endless striving so often leave us feeling empty?

In this conversation, we step away from literary analysis for a moment and explore what it means to protect the soul in a culture that constantly urges us to seek more. We reflect on comparison, consumerism, the quiet wisdom of our parents, and the small acts of attention that help us return to ourselves.

Perhaps this is one of the hidden gifts of reading the classics. They do more than tell us a story. They invite us to examine our own lives. As Goethe reminds us through Faust’s journey, the greatest discoveries are not always found in distant places. Sometimes they begin when we become still enough to notice what has been quietly waiting within us all along.

I hope you’ll make yourself a cup of tea, settle into a comfortable chair, and join Sarah and me as we continue to unravel one of literature’s greatest mysteries.

Rebecca

https://youtu.be/0pEzMsx1PMk?si=tp67zUz_wW2q6ZhY

https://open.spotify.com/episode/73rRCK6XhkuUDBxEXeZfU5?si=gt1spRpwRc6-je8LuJDGOg

Protecting the Soul – Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma

Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma S2 E9: The Spirit’s Refusal

Welcome back to Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma.

This podcast is not about mastering Faust. It’s about meeting it.  In our last episode, we stayed with the idea of longing. With Faust’s exhaustion, his honesty, and his deep desire to feel whole. We ended before judgment, before refusal, at the moment when longing felt like arrival.  Today, something answers.

Faust does not summon the Spirit casually.  He calls with everything he has. With years of study, with desperation, with yearning sharpened into belief. He believes he is ready now. That his longing has earned him passage.  And something comes.  Not as metaphor. Not as idea. But as presence. The Spirit does not reassure Faust.  It does not comfort him. It asks one question: Who calls me?

Already, the tone has changed.  Faust averts his eyes. The sight is too much. What he desired in abstraction overwhelms him in reality.  Still, the Spirit speaks. And what it says matters deeply.  It reminds Faust that this meeting was not accidental. That he summoned it. That his longing was strong enough to reach beyond the limits of thought. 

I want to pause here and let you hear this encounter in Goethe’s own words.

SPIRIT

To view me is thine aspiration,
My voice to hear, my countenance to see;
Thy powerful yearning moveth me,
Here am I!—what mean perturbation
Thee, superhuman, shakes? Thy soul’s high calling, where?
Where is the breast, which from itself a world did bear,
And shaped and cherished—which with joy expanded,
To be our peer, with us, the Spirits, banded?
Where art thou, Faust, whose voice has pierced to me,
Who towards me pressed with all thine energy?
He art thou, who, my presence breathing, seeing,
Trembles through all the depths of being,
A writhing worm, a terror-stricken form?

FAUST

Thee, form of flame, shall I then fear?
Yes, I am Faust: I am thy peer!

Faust, Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Bayard Taylor

This is not cruelty.  It is exposure.  The Spirit does not deny Faust’s longing. It honours it. But sincerity is not readiness. The Spirit holds Faust to his own self-image, to the being Faust believed himself to be.  And when that being is asked to stand revealed, Faust cannot endure it.  He trembles.  Not because the Spirit is evil, but because it is alive. Faust’s reply — “I am Faust: I am thy peer!” — is not arrogance.  It is desperation.  The Spirit does not argue. It reveals what it is.

It speaks of tides and storms.  Of birth and grave.  Of weaving and flowing.
Of time endlessly creating and undoing.  This Spirit is not knowledge.  It is process.  And Faust, brilliant and yearning as he is, cannot yet live there.  Then comes the sentence that ends the encounter: “Thou’rt like the Spirit which thou comprehendest — not me.” The Spirit disappears.  Faust is left alone — shaken, stripped of certainty.  This is the refusal. Not punishment.  Not condemnation.  But truth about timing.  Faust was early.

Longing can summon truth, but truth may ask more of us than we are ready to give. Faust will now be taught not by ideas, but by experience.  For now, I invite you to sit with this question: When in your own life did longing feel real, but readiness had to be earned another way?

 Thank you for being here. This is a journey for anyone who still believes that asking meaningful questions is an act of hope.

You are invited to join me as we explore one of literature’s greatest masterpieces, not as scholars seeking definitive answers, but as fellow travellers willing to ask meaningful questions

Rebecca

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1TH17FvTdo6S5UbQW00oWZ?si=SMWsihfbSbKQhnfeqphcGQ

https://youtu.be/LZ8If0GzCew?si=s1VP3__e_Nc8vKZa

„Er war (nicht mehr ganz) jung und er brauchte das Geld.“ – Sei es, wie es war. Nicolas Cage hat sich meine lebenslängliche Loyalität durch großartige Filme erworben. Und selbst die weniger großartigen sind mein Guilty-Pleasure. „Ghost Rider“ ist davon einer der mir allerliebsten. (ZDF, Wh.)

„Er war (nicht mehr ganz) jung und er brauchte das Geld.“ – Sei es, wie es war. Nicolas Cage hat sich meine lebenslängliche Loyalität durch großartige Filme erworben. Und selbst die weniger großartigen sind mein Guilty-Pleasure. „Ghost Rider“ ist davon einer der mir allerliebsten. (ZDF, Wh.)

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and they help you become what they are capable of being.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

#zitate #aphorismen #revolution #leereVersprechungen #johannwolfgangvongoethe #goethe

Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma S2 E8: Longing Before the Door Opens

Welcome to Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma.

For centuries, readers have returned to Faust not because it offers easy answers, but because it gives voice to one of humanity’s oldest questions: What is it that we are truly longing for? It is a work that asks us to look beyond knowledge, achievement, and certainty, inviting us instead into the mystery of becoming fully alive.

In this episode, we pause before the great drama unfolds. We meet Faust in his study, surrounded by books and accomplishments, yet haunted by the unsettling realization that knowledge alone cannot satisfy the human spirit.

One of the most beautiful moments in the opening scenes comes when Faust experiences a sudden vision of possibility:

“Ha! what a sudden rapture leaps from this
I view, through all my senses swiftly flowing!
I feel a youthful, holy, vital bliss
In every vein and fibre newly glowing.”

Faust, Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Bayard Taylor

For one radiant moment, longing feels like arrival. It is a glimpse of awakening, a reminder that there is more to life than what can be measured, mastered, or explained. Yet, Goethe gently reminds us that insight is only the beginning. Longing is not the destination. It is the invitation to begin the journey.

I hope you’ll join me as we explore one of literature’s greatest masterpieces, not as scholars seeking definitive answers, but as fellow travellers willing to ask meaningful questions.

Rebecca

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ciE452fqlEKHdhUxG3Z1Y?si=eE5goS49Q4KPIn3sVHaaLA

https://youtu.be/EePsxRyEVZ4?si=SJpHvZ1D5OkwUDzM

We Meet Faust: Longing Before the Door Opens – Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma

#zitate #aphorismen #deutscheliteratur #freisein #freiheit #johannwolfgangvongoethe

#zitate #aphorismen #politik #politikverdrossenheit #johannwolfgangvongoethe #goethe

#zitate #aphorismen #natur #menschen #gesellschaftskritik #vonGoethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe

You can easily judge a character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

Genie, Idol, Star: eine Ausstellung im Germanischen Nationalmuseum – Bayern

Ist der Autor dieses Textes ein Genie? Wir wollen nicht auf das hören, was er selbst dazu sagt.…
#Nuernberg #Nuremberg #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Nürnberg #Ausstellung #Bayern #FriedrichSchiller #Germany #Geschichte #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #KulturinBayern #Mittelfranken #Promis #SüddeutscheZeitung #TaylorSwift
https://www.europesays.com/de/1130491/

https://www.europesays.com/de/1130491/ Genie, Idol, Star: eine Ausstellung im Germanischen Nationalmuseum – Bayern #Ausstellung #Bayern #DE #Deutschland #FriedrichSchiller #Germany #Geschichte #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #KulturInBayern #Mittelfranken #Nürnberg #Promis #SüddeutscheZeitung #TaylorSwift

#zitate #literatur #deutscheliterautur #menschen #foerderung #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe

#zitate #sprueche #philosophie #verstehen #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe

Ob es so wichtig ist, dass er Wahl-Thüringer war!? 🤔
#zitate #sprueche #literatur #philosophie #mut #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe

#zitate #sprueche #qoutes #öffentlichemeinung #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe #vonGoethe

Wetzlar bei Frankfurt: Historische Altstadt überzeugt mit viel Fachwerk

Ausflug in Hessen Fachwerk-Juwel bei Frankfurt: In Wetzlar wartet ein Dom-Rätsel Aktualisiert am 11.06.2026 – 03:…
#Frankfurt #FrankfurtamMain #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #100192518 #100633310 #100656070 #Baugeschichte #Baustil #ErnstLeitz #Fachwerkhaus #Germany #Hessen #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Rhein #Wein #Werther #Wetzlar
https://www.europesays.com/de/1085355/

https://www.europesays.com/de/1085355/ Wetzlar bei Frankfurt: Historische Altstadt überzeugt mit viel Fachwerk #100192518 #100633310 #100656070 #Baugeschichte #Baustil #Deutschland #ErnstLeitz #Fachwerkhaus #Frankfurt #FrankfurtAmMain #Germany #Hessen #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #Rhein #Wein #Werther #Wetzlar

#zitate #sprueche #philosophie #philosoph #charakter #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe

#zitate #sprueche #literatur #dunkelheit #daemmerung #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe

Debate in Germany after Wim Wenders pulls film over child nudity

The decision by German director Wim Wenders to withdraw a 1975 film over a nude scene depicting a…
#Germany #DE #Europe #EU #Europa #controversialfilm #controversialscene #FlorianGallenberger #Germandirector #GermanFilmAcademy #industryfigures #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #NastassjaKinski #WimWenders
https://www.europesays.com/germany/30486/

Sí, al #TreballdeRecerca des de 1r #ESO, a totes les àrees curriculars i fins i tot a les extraescolars "El que no es comença avui mai s’acaba demà" #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Investigar és veure el q tothom ha vist i pensar el q ningú més ha pensat recercaasecundaria.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/i...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:zxp5uuzwezzv5jtbaj5uy5na/post/3mngyix7imk2g

I del Treball de Recerca, què?

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

#zitate #sprueche #goethe #johannwolfgangvongoethe #freiheit

Kirschblüte in Wiesbaden-Frauenstein: Ausflug im Rheingau ab Frankfurt

Rosa Frühling Ausflug zum Blütenmeer am „Tor zum Rheingau“ Aktualisiert am 27.04.2026 – 20:00 UhrLesedauer: 2 Min. Schloss…
#Wiesbaden #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #100137924 #100192518 #100656070 #Blütenmeer #Frauenstein #Germany #Hessen #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Rheingau #Sommerberg #Wiesbaden-Frauenstein
https://www.europesays.com/de/977439/

Vom Skandalstück zum Klassiker: Goethes Schauspiel „Stella“ am Staatstheater Augsburg

Zwei Frauen lieben einen Mann, ein Mann liebt zwei Frauen – klingt ganz einfach, ist aber ziemlich kompliziert,…
#Augsburg #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Bayern #Brechtbühne #Germany #Heilbronn #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #MaxSauer #MilenaMönch #Prozess #Schauspiel #staatstheater #Wipfeld
https://www.europesays.com/de/969795/

Kirschblüte, Burg und Goethe: Ausflug nach Frauenstein lohnt sich

Rosa Frühling Ausflug zum Blütenmeer am „Tor zum Rheingau“ Aktualisiert am 19.04.2026 – 17:30 UhrLesedauer: 2 Min. Schloss…
#Wiesbaden #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #100137924 #100192518 #100656070 #Blütenmeer #Frauenstein #Germany #Hessen #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Rheingau #Sommerberg #Wiesbaden-Frauenstein
https://www.europesays.com/de/957770/

Ausflugstipp mit Kirschblüten, Burg und Wanderung

Rosa Frühling Ausflug zum Blütenmeer am „Tor zum Rheingau“ 16.04.2026 – 19:00 UhrLesedauer: 2 Min. Schloss Sommerberg in…
#Wiesbaden #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #100137924 #100192518 #100656070 #Blütenmeer #Frauenstein #Germany #Hessen #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe #Rheingau #Sommerberg #Wiesbaden-Frauenstein
https://www.europesays.com/de/950844/

Faust ist Premium-Content. Und eine Marke. Hier mal als digitales Bildungserlebnis, das sich selbst nicht so ganz ernst nimmt, aber auch nicht weiß, wie viel Ernst eigentlich nötig wäre. Der Film von Karsten Prühl wirkt wie ein Projekt, das sich irgendwo zwischen Klassenzimmer und Streamingplattform verlaufen hat. Zwischen didaktischem Anspruch und popkultureller Anschlussfähigkeit steht es und fragt sich leise, ob das hier eigentlich noch Aufklärung ist oder schon Algorithmus-optimiert? (ARD, Wh.)

Goethes Faust (2020)
verfügbar bis 14.04.2026

https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/goethes-faust/goethes-faust-oder-drama/mdr/Y3JpZDovL21kci5kZS9zZW5kdW5nLzI4MjA0MC81NTcwMjMtNDE5MDk3

https://www.imdb.com/de/title/tt3996898

#GoethesFaust #Faust #Goethe #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #film #Literaturverfilmung #ard #ardmediathek #mediathek #KarstenPruehl #BernardoAriasPorras #HeidrunBartholomäus #PeerBlank

“What matters to you defines your mattering”*…

Further in a fashion to yesterday’s post, and ia the always illuminating Delanceyplace.com, an explication of one of the most fundamental of all human needs: an excerpt from Rebecca Goldstein‘s The Mattering Instinct, in which she draws on one of the fathers of both pragmatism and psychology, William James…

We speak both of what matters and of who matters. In fact, we speak a great deal about both.

Consider what matters. In recent decades, the phrase why X matters has become a template for dozens of book titles, including Why Beauty Matters, Why Emotions Matter, Why Family Matters, Why Genealogy Matters, Why Good Sex Matters, Why Jesus Matters, Why Knowledge Matters, Why Liberalism Matters, Why Money Matters, and Why Stories Matter. The profusion of titles, many of them mutually exclusive–after all, if Jesus matters, then how, too, can money?–testifies to our preoccupation with what matters.

And it’s not only the question of what matters but also of who matters that’s urgent. Consider: In 2013, seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Black American, was visiting, together with his father, his father’s fiance at her townhouse in a gated community in Florida. While the grownups were out, Trayvon went to a nearby convenience store to get himself some snacks and, on his way back, was shot by a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, himself a member of a minority as a Hispanic American. Zimmerman found Trayvon suspicious looking–the boy’s hoodie was prominently mentioned in news stories–and called the police, while he continued to trail the teenager, a course of action ultimately ending in the boy’s death. Trayvon hadn’t been armed. All that was found on him was a bag of Skittles and an iced tea.

After the acquittal of the shooter, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter exploded onto social media. The three-word slogan soon went beyond mere hashtags and placards, following the deaths of two more unarmed Black Americans, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, to become a political movement. Those who opposed Black Lives Matter sometimes offered as rejoinders their own three-word slogans: ‘All Lives Matter,’ or ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ this last referring to police officers. Of course, ‘Black Lives Matter’ isn’t inconsistent with either ‘All Lives Matter’ or ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ since ‘Black Lives Matter’ isn’t synonymous with ‘Only Black Lives Matter.’ The power and the poignancy of the original slogan lay in its minimalism. But what the battle of the slogans made clear is the potency of the verb to matter, in this instance applied not to the question of what matters but rather who matters.

So what exactly does the verb to matter mean? Here is a quick working definition: To matter is to be deserving of attention. It’s the same whether we are speaking of what matters or who matters. The thing or the person that matters makes a claim on us; at the very least, a claim is made on our attention.

The claim of being deserving of attention may be based on consequences that would ensue from paying attention or not paying attention–as when we ask, say, does voting really matter? We’re asking whether voting makes a difference; and so whether it’s worth our while to pay the attention called for in voting. It’s still the question of being deserving of attention, but what decides the issue is the consequences. In other circumstances, claims of mattering–of being deserving of attention–are independent of considerations of consequences, as when we assert that Black lives matter or that all lives matter. Here it’s intrinsic mattering, having nothing to do with consequences. And what intrinsic mattering comes down to is being deserving of attention. To claim that Black lives matter, as all lives matter, is to make claims regarding the deservingness of attention.

This leaves us with two more terms to explicate: attention and deservingness.

Attention is a mental phenomenon studied by contemporary psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists–in other words, it is a subject for the empirical sciences.

The best definition I know of the phenomenon was given by the philosopher and psychologist William James. Attention, he wrote, is ‘the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what may seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thoughts.’ Focalization, concentration of consciousness, are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.

James implies that attention is something we do. ‘It is the taking possession by the mind.’ The world’s languages agree. In English we pay attention, while in other languages we give, lend, gift, dedicate, sacrifice, prepare, turn, attach, apply, infuse, and arouse our attention. The linguistic formations all imply that there is activity and agency in attention. His definition also makes clear how attention, as an activity, is to be distinguished from the broader notion of consciousness. After all, that confused, dazed, scatterbrained state is a state of consciousness, though the ‘real opposite’ of paying attention.

His definition also entails that attention is limited and selective: withdrawal from some things. Every act of attention is an act of exclusion. In paying attention to something, we are forced to ignore a multitude of other things. And he ties this limitedness and selectivity with attention’s usefulness: in order to deal effectively. Contemporary psychology agrees. Attention’s limitedness and selectivity is crucial to its usefulness and linked to the reason why organisms evolved attention in the first place: to pay attention to changeable things in the organism’s immediate environment that can help or hinder it, nourish or annihilate it. That unpleasant smell, for example, may very well signal toxicity. Note the presence of the word changeable. The function of attention is tied to what is variable, not just to what is relevant to fitness. Oxygen, our heartbeat, gravity, and many other things are vital to our survival, and our unconscious mental processes must take them into account. But they tend to be constant, so there is no need to allocate our limited window of attention to them, unless circumstances alarmingly change.

The agency entailed in the act of paying attention means that we have some control over what we do and don’t pay attention to. You may be unable to remain oblivious to the bad music blasting in your gym or the rank smell seeping into your kitchen–stimuli that are intense or that pop out of your surroundings. But you can decide to pay no attention to, say, gossip or popular culture, social media or your weight. You can decide that they simply don’t matter, which is to say that they’re not deserving of your attention. And this brings us to the second component of the English verb to matter–namely deservingness.

Deservingness introduces an entirely different level of consideration into our preoccupations with mattering. It’s a level that goes beyond the psychological, beyond the empirical altogether. Deservingness draws us into the nonempirical sphere of values and justifications, of oughts and ought-nots. This is the sphere that philosophers call normative, because it invokes norms of justification. The mattering instinct means that we are normative creatures down to our core. We think and act and shape our lives within the sphere of justifications. Instead of calling ourselves Homo sapiens, we might better have christened ourselves Homo justificans.

It’s the presence of deservingness in the concept of mattering that raises us up into an entirely different order of both complexity and perplexedness. The mattering instinct has us straining beyond the empirical for the normative knowledge that eludes us. We are carried over into the sphere of values and justifications without being equipped to see our way through. Here is the epistemic elusiveness that injects the unsubdued doubt–and hence unease–into the heart of what it is to pursue a human life.

We speak both of what matters and of who matters. And behind our preoccupations with both is the most urgent of all our mattering questions, which is voiced in the first person: Do I matter? This is the mother of our mattering questions. Ultimately, we want to know what matters because we desperately want our own lives to be driven by what matters. We want to know who matters because we desperately want to be numbered among the ones who matter.

Self-mattering–feeling ourselves overwhelmingly deserving of our own attention–is baked into our identity. The usefulness of attention, to which William James alluded, is its usefulness to ourselves. So it’s no wonder that the greater part of our attention is given over to ourselves, whether overtly or tacitly. Throughout the enormous complexity of how the mind works, our self-mattering is presumed. And yet, astonishing creatures that we are, we are able, by way of the capacity for self-reflection with which our brains come equipped, to step outside of our self-mattering, which is to step outside ourselves, to pose the mother of all mattering questions…

It’s the deservingness component that separates the mattering for which we long from such empirical psychological states as having confidence or self-esteem. You can go online right now, or schedule a visit to a psychologist, and take a test that measures your confidence or self-esteem. There will be a series of statements to which you respond with the degree of your agreement, such as: I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others. I feel that I have a number of good qualities. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I’m a failure. The test may even provide a numerical score, similar to an IQ test. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, for example, which is one of the most widely used measures of self-esteem and from which I’ve taken the above statements, provides a numerical value from 1 to 30, with any score under 15 indicating low self-esteem. It was none other than William James who first formulated the concept of self-esteem, offering an equation as its definition.

But these assessments of how good you feel about yourself, often in relation to others, aren’t tests of whether you truly, objectively, existentially matter. To figure out that question, the mother of all mattering questions, you can’t take an empirical test. Your self-esteem score, whether high or low, may be grounded in self-delusion, and the mother question is a demand for the answer that lies on the other side of self-delusion. Do I truly and objectively matter? I know that I can’t help feeling that I do, but do I really?

When it comes to our own mattering, we are staunch realists. We don’t want feelings. We want the facts.”…

“Mattering“

See also “Why We Need to Feel Like We Matter” (source of the image above)

* John Green

###

As we wonder about worth, we might spare a thought for a man who unquestionably mattered, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; he died on this date in 1832. A poet, playwright, artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and philosopher, he is probably best remembered these days for Faust. But by virtue of the breadth and depth of his work, he is considered “the master spirit of the German people,” and, after Napoleon, the leading figure of his age.
 

Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma – S2 E4 The Prologue in Heaven

The Prologue in Heaven: Awe Before the Human Struggle

In our previous episode, we remained in the world of the theatre. We listened as the Manager worried about the crowd, the Poet longed for refuge, and the Merryfellow celebrated the present hour. These voices felt human and familiar. But Goethe does not allow us to stay there. With breathtaking boldness, he tears open the curtain of earthly perspective and lifts us into heaven.

In the “Prologue in Heaven,” we hear Raphael describe the sun’s majestic course and the radiant harmony of creation. Gabriel and Michael add their voices, revealing a universe alive with motion, power, and divine order. It is a scene of splendour and cosmic music.

RAPHAEL

The sun-orb sings, in emulation,
’Mid brother-spheres, his ancient round:
His path predestined through Creation
He ends with step of thunder-sound.
The angels from his visage splendid
Draw power, whose measure none can say;
The lofty works, uncomprehended,
Are bright as on the earliest day.

GABRIEL

And swift, and swift beyond conceiving,
The splendor of the world goes round,
Day’s Eden-brightness still relieving
The awful Night’s intense profound:
The ocean-tides in foam are breaking,
Against the rocks’ deep bases hurled,
And both, the spheric race partaking,
Eternal, swift, are onward whirled!

MICHAEL

And rival storms abroad are surging
From sea to land, from land to sea.
A chain of deepest action forging
Round all, in wrathful energy.
There flames a desolation, blazing
Before the Thunder’s crashing way:
Yet, Lord, Thy messengers are praising
The gentle movement of Thy Day.

From Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, translated by Bayard Taylor (1870).

And then Mephistopheles speaks. His tone is different. Ironic, sharp, unsettling. He observes humanity’s restlessness and contradictions with piercing clarity. Where the angels sing, he critiques.

Why does Goethe give us this glimpse of heaven before we ever meet Faust? Because he wants us to understand the scale of the drama. Faust’s longing does not arise in isolation. It unfolds within a vast universe of order and tension, harmony and contradiction. Awe prepares the way for understanding.

Before we enter Faust’s study, before we witness his despair, we are invited to remember that we belong to something greater than ourselves. We are made of flesh, yes, but we are also aware of light. As you listen to this episode, I invite you to reflect. Where in your life do you feel the tension between longing for something higher and the limits of being human? It is in that space that Faust lives.

Until next time, may you remember that you are part of this magnificent drama.

Rebecca

https://open.spotify.com/episode/501IIGhqKUkLNLUAkn1Zih?si=J7h_qtoyTiekutN7Lofywg&pi=Y01OByRaTdK3P&t=0

https://youtu.be/xN7WsfsmtGc?si=8LAifJD6Lz8cXDjH

The Prologue in Heaven – Faust: Unraveling the Great Enigma

AI translation of literature should be questioned because literary translation requires human interpretation and cultural understanding that machines cannot provide. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2026/03/18/japan/lost-in-ai-translation/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #japan #ai #artificialintelligence #literature #chatgpt #gemini #apple #airpods #iphone #friedrichschleiermacher #jacquesderrida #johannwolfgangvongoethe

You can easily judge a character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and they help you become what they are capable of being.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

You can easily judge a character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#Stoic #Stoicism #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

„Nicht der Mangel an Verstand ist das größte Übel der Macht, sondern der Mangel an Mitgefühl.“ frei nach dem Geist von #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe. Und vielleicht stimmt der alte Satz … Jedes Land bekommt die Führung, die es duldet. #noMerz #noCDU #noCSU #noSPD #AFDVerbot sofort! Dank @[email protected] 🖖

Wie nu ineens denkt "WTF heeft pizza met Goethe te maken", geef ik dit als verklaring:

"Wer Großes will, muß sich zusammenraffen;
In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister,
Und das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben."
Bron: https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/goethe/sonette/sonette.html

Vertaald:
'Wie grootse dingen wil, moet zich vermannen;
Alleen in beperking openbaart de meester zich,
en alleen de wet kan ons vrijheid geven.'

Nederlandse samenvatting: In de beperking toont zich de meester.
#pizza #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

Goethe's Faustian Life

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/goethe-mitchell-wilson-faust-johann-biography

#HackerNews #Goethe #Faust #Life #Literature #Biography #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe

keadamander (@[email protected])

https://pixelfed.social/p/keadamander/815237968138292868

> Goethe in Bronze and Silence #photography #ttartisan #goethestatue #viennahistory #citymonument #classicliterature #johannwolfgangvongoethe #wienkultur #urbanmonuments #literarylegacy #viennawalks #historicvienna #publicart #bronzesculpture #culturalvienna #viennaphotospot #heritageinbronze

#quote
Auch aus Steinen, die einem in den Weg gelegt werden, kann man Schönes bauen.

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, dt. Dichter und Politiker)

#Goethe #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe

thanks to https://ub.hsu-hh.de/go/moinmoin

« Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength. »

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

🔗 · https://poligraf.tumblr.com/post/737899323797520384/wayti-blognothing-is-so-strong-as-gentleness

#quotes #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #Goethe #gentleness #strength #kindness

« Light And Colour (Goethe’s Theory) · The Morning After The Deluge · Moses Writing The Book Of Genesis » by Joseph Mallord William Turner

🔗 · https://poligraf.tumblr.com/post/766351335878688768/light-and-colour-goethes-theory-the-morning

#arts #artshare #paintings 🎨 #JosephMallordWilliamTurner #light #colour #deluge #Turner #Moses #Genesis #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe

« There is strong shadow where there is much light. »

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

🔗 · https://poligraf.tumblr.com/post/766248752009920512/there-is-strong-shadow-where-there-is-much

#quotes #JohannWolfgangVonGoethe #light #shadow

Nicolas Cage – „Ghost Rider“ (2007)

„Er war (nicht mehr ganz) jung und er brauchte das Geld.“ – Sei es, wie es war. Nicolas Cage hat sich meine lebenslängliche Loyalität durch großartige Filme erworben. Und selbst die weniger großartigen sind mein Guilty-Pleasure. „Ghost Rider“ ist davon einer der mir allerliebsten.