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Key words: Goethe, Faust, Mephistopheles, Pansophism.

The article deals with the main character in Goethe’s tragedy Faust, namely Faust, and defines the specifics of his worldview: it is based, on the one hand, on mysticism and irrationalism, and on the other hand, on the type of rationalism characteristic to enlightenment, and empiricism in particular. Faust’s point of view is a combination of various irrational-mystical Theosophical or theological doctrines, such as neo-platonic Pansophism, Apophatic of pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite, the metaphysics of Leibniz (Deism and Monadology); Faust at the same time can be regarded as the representative of the ideas of the German Enlightenment philosopher, Christian Wolf, as well as Newtonian- Lockian type of English empiricism.

First of all, what should be underlined about Faust’s ideology is that he can be perceived as an “Apophatic Theologian”. His following words told to Gretchen are rather interesting in this regard: “Sweetest being, don’t misunderstand me! Who dares name the nameless? [...] I have no name for it! Feeling is all: Names are sound and smoke, Veil- ing Heaven’s bright glow” (V. 3432, 3455-3458). (The English translation of Goethe’s Faust belongs to A. S. Kline, who translated and published it into English in 2003). Hence, it is obvious that the positive naming of God, a kind of nominalism, is totally unacceptable for Faust; it is inconceivable to him that the imperfect language of an imperfect mortal man might be able to perfectly reflect and convey the unknowable essence of infinite divinity.

Therefore, the approach of Apophatic theology is acceptable for him –the “negative” and back warding of God’s name, that He is unspoken, unknowable, obscure, foreign, etc. The following words by Faust are rather important from a neo-Platonic point of view, namely one of the central themes of Neo-Platonism, Emanation, strikes the reader: “The all-clasping (“Allumfasser”), The all-upholding (“Allerhalter”), Does it not clasp, uphold, You: me, itself?” (V. 3438-3441). In this passage, Faust points out that the emanating divine power, mind, and spirit are completely extended within the world in visible, sensory and material, as well as invisible, supra-sensible, intangible phenomenon, that every essence (planetary world, plant world, animal world, natural world) is interfused with the divine spirit.

This pervasiveness and omnipresence, and dilution in all things, is an emanating feature of the Neo-platonic God: one is revealed, manifested, “poured out” into the infinity of the universe as a force, and thus scattered in every essence of the universe, great and small; Accordingly, he encompasses everyone with his divine light and gathers everything together. Faust’s “Neo-Platonism” is also manifested in the fact, that he does not establishes a connection with worldly, earthly or terrestrial phenomena on “dry” scholastic nominalism and logic, but tries to feel the worldly events, to experience life to the fullest. This is a kind of Neo-platonic cognition method, in particular, the “mystical” method of eclectic cognition of objects and events: Are not my eyes reflected in yours?

And don’t all things press (“Geheimnis”) On your head and heart (“Herz”), And weave, in eternal mystery, Visibly: invisibly (“unsichtbar sichtbar”), around you? [...] Feeling (“Gefühl”) is all” (V. 3446-3450, 3456). It is not accidental that Faust’s ecstatic cognition is based on contemplation (“schauen”), feeling (“Gefühl”) and Heart (“Herz”): It is contemplation and feeling the process of inner spiritual meditation, when sensitive objects are intuitively, internally recognized and felt in earthly empirical objects, and the Heart is the ethical and cognitive organ from which universal love and mystical ecstasy comes to the world, the divine “madness” that Faust calls “celestial light”, “heavenly fire” (“Himmelsglut”).

In addition to Neo-Platonic and Apophatic elements, Faust’s worldview is also infused with Deist positions, and this becomes evident in the following phrase: “Don’t the heavens arch above us? Doesn’t earth lie here under our feet? And don’t the eternal stars, rising” (V. 3442-3445). It is pointed out here that the visible world is the product of a reasonable, rational divine idea that it is harmoniously “working” according to the perfect physical-mechanical laws, which the Lord has placed in it. Thus, here Faust develops Leibniz’s view of the pre-harmonic and stable arrangement of the universe (“prästabilierte Harmonie“), according to which everything in the universe is balanced, solid, and non-turbid from the very beginning.

This idea by Faust undoubtedly reminds us of Leibniz’s famous Deist statement that this world is as perfect as it possibly might be. Thus, according to his worldview, Faust is a “Neo-Platonist,” an “Apophatic,” and a “Deist” at the same time. Consequently, his point of view has grown out of syncretic wisdom; he is a kind of “Gnostic” philosopher, Theosophist. Therefore, from Faust’s and Margaret’s/Gretchen’s dialogue (and not only through this dialogue) and not only are revealed Faust’s positions (his peculiar deism, Neo-Platonism, Apophatism), but also the fact that Faust can be regarded as a Pan-Sophist, or the kind of philosopher, who fully possesses all types of theosophical and “Gnostic” knowledge about the whole, or the whole world.

It can be argued, that Faust unites the whole Western philosophical and theological tradition in his worldview: he simultaneously appears as a “Platonist”, “Neo-Platonist”, “Apophatic”, “Leibnizian”, a rationalist Meta physician and empiricist. Thus, it is this syncretic knowledge, his united knowledge of the whole world, which makes him a Pan- sophist: his knowledge is pan-sophistic, which means that he fully possesses all the non- rationalist and rationalist knowledge that has ever existed. This knowledge is expressed in the text of Faust by the term “Magic” (“Magie”): in the text, magic does not mean some supernatural magic and occultism, but the term “magic” means Pan-Sophism, or universal philosophy, the highest all-encompassing wisdom, esoterical-mystical-gnostic-Neo- platonic philosophy, which is characterized by intuitionism, irrational forms of cognition, “disconnection” of the mind, meditative exercises, self-deepening, self-contemplation, ecstasy, etc.

(Schmidt 2011:78). Unlike the rational forms of cognition, in the end, Faust perceives that it is the irrational form of cognition, on which the full and not partial knowledge of the world can be based on, which is a shortcoming of empirical sciences, since empirical science perceives only one detail the positive side of the universe, and is unable to understand the universe in unity – seeing the positive or empirical-visible and feeling-cogitable side of the universe, non-empirical, non-material, supersensitive, hidden side: “So I’ve given myself to Magic art, To see if, through Spirit (“Geist”) powers and lips, I might have all secrets („Geheimnis“); at my fingertips.

[...] That I may understand whatever Binds the world’s innermost core together, (“Dass ich erkenne, was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält”); See all its workings, and its seeds, Deal no more in words’ empty reeds. („Und tu nicht mehr in Worten kramen”)” (V. 377-379, 382-385). Thus, Magic is the universal science, wisdom, Pan-Sophism, which aims at the cognition and perception of the hidden essence of the world, the arrangement and order of the universal, the laws of nature. But the peculiarity of Faust’s worldviews and positions is that in the end he rejects both the irrational-mystical and the rationalist-scholastic ways of knowing the world, develops a reassessment of values, and becomes aware that no traditional way of cognition can comprehend this infinite world as a whole.

Therefore, Faust, prepared to make a pact with the Mephistopheles, eventually becomes a skeptic and a nihilist. However, this nihilism and skepticism of his can be regarded as productive nihilism, since during the process of reassessing old worldview and ethical values ​is born a new, free, purified perspective on one’s own authentic worldview. Faust’s famous curse (German: “Fluch”) is the first act of re-evaluating these old, false values: Faust: So I curse whatever snares the soul (“Seele”), In its magical, enticing arms, Banishes it to this mournful hole (“Trauerhöhle”) (Symbolic allusion to Plato’s Cave – K.B) , With dazzling, seductive charms!

Cursed be those high Opinions (“die hohe Meinung”), first, With which the mind (“Geist”) entraps itself! (Criticism of Kantian Meta-physics and the Hegelian objective wisdom – K.B.) Then glittering Appearance (“Erscheinung”) curse, In which the senses (“Sinnen”) lose themselves!(Criticism of Empiricism/Sensuality – K. B.) Curse what deceives us in our dreaming, With thoughts of everlasting fame! Curse the flattery of ‘possessing’ Wife and child, lands and name! Curse Mammon, when he drives us To bold acts to win our treasure: Or straightens out our pillows For us to idle at our leisure! Curse the sweet juice of the grape! Curse the highest favours Love lets fall!

Cursed be Hope! Cursed be Faith, And cursed be Patience (“Geduld”) most of all!” (V. 1587-1605). And in the finale of the tragedy, Faust’s soul is saved not by official Christianity, going to the Church, and the unspoken knowledge of Christian dogmatic depicted in the Catechism-type textbook, but Platonism (the concept of Eros), Neo-Platonism (Plato), the early Christian mystical theology (Origen) and even Leibniz’s Monadology. It is this Pan-Sophist knowledge of Faust, which accompanies him in the transcendental world, and which is saturated with Faust’s intelligent slavery, that helps his paradigmatic soul: his immortal soul after death “uses” this knowledge to unite with the eternal divinely light.

გამოქვეყნებულია ჟურნალში „სჯანი“, ტ. 21 (2020), გვ. 26–53. ნაშრომის გახსნა