Transformation and Truth: Goethe, Lévi-Strauss, and the Science of the Concrete

In a 1971 interview, Claude Lévi-Strauss makes the compelling and perhaps unexpected statement that the guiding “epistemological attitude” of structuralism was in fact not so new; rather, he asserts, “it probably goes back to Goethe.” The question then is: Why Goethe? And what does a hypothetical connection between him and Lévi-Strauss bring to light for our understanding of their respective modes of thought? This talk will explore the contours of the “epistemological attitude” in question, with a focus on its ramifications for anthropological analysis in the work of both Goethe and Lévi-Strauss.