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“The Present Alone Is Our Joy”: the Meaning of the Present Instant in Goethe and in Ancient Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Pierre Hadot
Pierre Hadot*
Affiliation:
Collège de France
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Extract

“And so the spirit looks neither ahead nor behind: the present alone is our joy”. This verse form Goethe's Faust Part Two expresses a manner of concentrating oneself on the present instant, of recognizing the value of this instant, corresponding to a type of experience of time which was felt quite strongly in ancient philosophies such as Epicureanism and Stoicism. It is primarily this type of experience which will be considered here. But we cannot overlook the literary context in which these verses appear and the significance they assumed in Faust Part Two and in Goethe's oeuvre in general. In this respect we can remark that Goethe himself is a telling witness to the type of experience that we are going to describe.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 34 , Issue 133 , March 1986 , pp. 60 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1 Faust, verse 9381.

2 Faust, verse 4685.

3 Faust, verses 6487-6500.

4 Faust, verse 9370.

5 Faust, verse 9419.

6 Faust, verses 9377-9384.

7 Faust, verses 9411-9418.

8 Letter to Zelter of October, 19, 1829, Goethes Briefe, K.R. Mandelkow ed., Munich, Beck, vol. IV, p. 346.

9 In Das Schenkenbuch, Goethes Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. II, p. 94.

10 O. Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes, vol. I, Munich, 1923, p. 11.

11 J. Hintikka, Time and Necessity, Oxford, 1973, p. 86.

12 S. Morenz, Die Zauberflöte, Münstersche Forschungen, Münster, 1952, p. 89.

13 Cicero, De finibus, I, 18, 59.

14 Cicero, De finibus, I, 18, 60.

15 Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 15, 9.

16 Cf. G. Arrighetti, Epicuro, Opere, Turin, 1973, fr. 240, p. 567.

17 Cicero, De finibus, I, 19, 63.

18 Cf. G. Arrighetti, Epicuro, Opere, Ratae Sententiae, XIX, p. 127.

19 Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 74, 27.

20 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, X, 3, 1174 a 17 ss. Cf. H.J. Krämer, Platonismus und Hellenistische Philosophie, Berlin, 1971, p. 188, et seq.

21 J.M.Guyau, La Morale d'Epicure, Paris, 1927, p. 112 et seq.

22 Horace, Odes, II, 16, 25.

23 Cf. G. Arrighetti, Epicuro, Opere, Gnomologium Vaticanum, § 14, p. 143.

24 Horace, Odes, I, 11, 7.

25 Horace, Epistles, I, 4, 13.

26 Cf. M. Gigante, Ricerche Filodemee, Naples, 1983, p. 181 and pp. 215-216.

27 Lucretius, De rerum natura, II, 1034.

28 Cf. G. Arrighetti, Epicuro, Opere, Gnomologium Vaticanum, § 33, p. 146. The maxim speaks of "Zeus", which we have here replaced with "God" for reasons of clarity.

29 Cf. G. Arrighetti, Epicuro, Opere, Epistula ad Menoeceum,. §§ 124-125, p. 108.

30 Horace, Odes, III, 29, 42.

31 Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 12, 9.

32 Lucretius, De rerum natura, III, 16-17.

33 The most accessible version of this maxim can be found in Clement of Alexandria, Stromates, V, 14, 138, 2 (See the commentary of A. Le Boulluec in Clément d'Alexandrie, Stromates, V, Commentaire, Paris (Sources chrétiennes), 1981, p. 369.

34 L. Robin, Lucretius, De rerum natura, Commentaire des livres III-IV, Paris, 1926 (1962), p. 151.

35 Lucretius, De rerum natura, III, 947-949.

36 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IX, 6.

37 Marcus Aurelius, VII, 29, 3 and III, 12, 1.

38 The principal text can be found in the collection of Stoic fragments by H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, vol. II, § 509, and the commentary in P. Hadot, Zur Vorgeschichte des Begriffs Existenz, in Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, vol. XIII, 1969, p. 118-119.

39 Marcus Aurelius, VI, 32, 3.

40 Marcus Aurelius, XII, 1, 1-2.

41 Marcus Aurelius, XII, 3, 3-4.

42 Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 78, 14.

43 Seneca, De beneficiis, VII, 2, 4-5.

44 Cicero, De finibus, III, 14, 45.

45 Plutarch, Des notions communes contre les stoïciens, 8, 1062 a, in Les Stoïciens (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), p. 140.

46 Marcus Aurelius, V, 2.

47 Marcus Aurelius, II, 5, 2 and VII, 69.

48 Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 101, 10.

49 Marcus Aurelius, II, 14, 3.

50 Seneca, De beneficiis, VII, 3, 3.

51 Plutarch, Des notions communes, 37, 1078 e, in Les Stoïciens (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), p. 169.

52 Marcus Aurelius, VI, 37.

53 Marcus Aurelius, X, 5.

54 Marcus Aurelius, X, 21.

55 Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 66, 6.

56 Faust, verses 9382 and 9418.

57 Conversation with J.D. Falk, in F. von Biedermann, Goethes Gespräche, Leipzig, 1910, vol. IV, p. 469).

58 An Grafen Paar, in Goethes sämtliche Werke, Cottasche Jubiläumsausgabe, Stuttgart, 1902, vol. III, p. 13.

59 Egmont, Act II.

60 Lebensregel, in Sprüche, 97 et seq., in Goethes Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. I, p. 319.

61 Elegie, verse 91, et seq., Goethes Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. I, p. 384.

62 Letter to Zelter of October 19, 1829, Goethes Briefe, ed. K.R. Mandelkow, Munich, 1967, vol. IV, p. 347.

63 Letter to Sickler of April 28, 1812, Goethes Briefe, vol. III, p. 184.

64 Vermächtnis, Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. I, p. 370.

65 J.P. Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe, November 3, 1823, Wiesbaden, Insel-Verlag, 1955, p. 61.

66 Neo-Platonism, H. Schmitz, Goethes Altersdenken, Bonn, 1959, p. 152 et seq. Pietism, W. Schadewaldt, Goethestudien, Zurich, 1963, p. 445.

67 Maximen und Reflexionen, No. 314 Hecker: No. 752, Hamburger Ausgabe.

68 Faust, verse 12104.

69 Eins und Alles, Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. I, p. 368.

70 Selige Sehnsucht, Diwan, Hamburger Ausgabe, II, p. 18.

71 Letter to Auguste von Bernstorff of April 17, 1823, Briefe, vol. IV, p. 63.

72 In Divan Occidental-Oriental, Buch Suleika, Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. II, p. 70.

73 In the poem Vermächtnis.

74 Faust, verses 11296-11303.

75 Winckelmann, in Hamburger Ausgabe, vol. XII, p. 98.

76 Cf. Maximen und Reflexionen, 1207 Hecker, 718 Hamburger Ausgabe (vol. XII), and 314 Hecker, 752 Hamburger Ausgabe (vol. XII).

77 J.P. Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe, February 28, 1831, p. 438.

78 F. Nietzsche, Nachgelassene Fragmente, Ende 1886-Frühjahr 1887, 7 (38), Sämtliche Werke, Berlin, De Gruyter, vol. XII, p. 307.

79 G. Friedmann, La Puissance et la Sagesse, Paris, 1970.

80 Cf. P. Hadot, Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique, Paris, 1981.

81 Plato, Alcibiade, 120 d 4 and Socrates' Apology, 36 c.

82 F. Nietzsche, Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, III, 4.