Goethe's Colors: Revolutionary Optics and the Anthropocene
Abstract:For Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), a study of colors expresses the morphological and metamorphic processes of the active natural world, energized by the sunlight, that grow, live, and crystallize into ever new forms. Rather than focusing on static objects, Goethe saw the natural—and social—world as an expression of ongoing processes. Colors are, above all, actively developing components of a world in fux, not fxed entities. Newton, he wrote, was wrong in that he studied light as if it were an isolated feature and not an interactive part of the world. Newton's breakdown of white light into the spectrum of colors is accurate, of course; what Goethe recognized, in contrast, is the more complex and muddied realm of perception and relations between and among things and observers, studied in quantum mechanics and the new materialisms. In other words, these felds and Goethe postulate that our physical world and human existence are part of manifold engagements between energy, matter, living things, and mental perception. We are never truly "outside" of the system that we study, though most of empirical science assumes that we are or could be or at least should strive to be when undertaking objective studies. With this vision, Goethe offers what I call a proto-"ecological theory of colors" at the beginning of the newly defned geological era of the Anthropocene when human activities have left traces on environmental systems across the entire Earth.
Ecocriticism, the Elements, and the Ascent/Descent into Weather in Goethe's Faust
The ostensibly religious and ethical significance of Faust’s final ascension after his death tends to distract, if not blind, readers to other possible implications of that upwards movement and to the idea that he may continue and return “back to earth.” The assumption that heavenly powers reward Faust leads to the claim that Goethe’s tragedy validates the quest of “land developers” or those who would strive regardless of the consequences. I propose, in contrast, that we read Faust’s “final” ascension alongside Goethe’s weather essay, “Witterungslehre 1825,” and thereby note that this upward motion is not necessarily “final” at all but rather part of the circulation of the elements driven by their polarities to create weather patterns flowing upwards and downwards. Goethe describes just such a pattern in his “Gesang der Geister uber den Wassern”: “Des Menschen Seele / Gleicht dem Wasser: / Vom Himmel kommt es, / Zum Himmel steigt es, / Und wieder nieder / Zur Erde mus es, / Ewig wechselnd.” 1 Faust’s earthly remains travel, in fact, through the same three layers of air, “die Luftregionen” that he describes in the weather essays. And since such flows “zum Himmel,” also come “vom Himmel” as part of inevitable polarities, he shall also likely return “wieder nieder.” When understood within the context of Goethe’s science and this poem, the tragedy appears less a final affirmation of Faust’s skills as “modern developer” than a portrayal of elemental forces in whose flows we exist. Failure to appreciate and conceptualize their patterns allows us to be swept away all too easily into Mephistophelean land grabs, exploitation of other people and life forms, and the seductive promise of sex, power, and the rapid access to “fire-driven” energy forms. Whether Faust succeeds in diverting the powerful interactions of the four elements and their atmospheric perturbations or rather is swept away in their flows is hence a significant question to ask of the closing scene of Goethe’s “final masterpiece.” The answer, typically Goethean, is a little of both. My efforts here to revisit Faust in terms of Goethe’s science, and so to join the work proposed by Astrida Orle Tantillo, 2 also have an eye towards the environmental questions of ecocriticism. The essay has three parts that are each informed by a specific scholar. First, I look at Goethe’s “Gesang” in conjunction with his weather essays to see how they relate to the closing scene of the play, putting a particular emphasis on how Goethe explains atmospheric conditions via interactions of the four elements (earth, air,
InTlP — a proposed infrared detector material
In1−xTlxP is proposed as a promising material for infrared detectors. A number of key optical and structural properties are studied within local density‐functional theory. In1−xTlxP at x=0.67 and In1−xTlxAs at x=0.15 are estimated to have a gap of 0.1 eV. Their binding energies are larger than that of InSb, and they are found to form stable zinc‐blende alloys for all x. In1−xTlxP nearly lattice matches to InP, and offers the potential to integrate detector array and read‐out circuit.