The new mythology for which the German Romantic period called was not envisioned as antithetical to empiricism or experiential/experimental knowledge, but rather as emerging in dialogue with it to form a cultural foundation for such inquiry. Central to the mytho-scientific project were problematic theories of sexual division and generativity that established cultural baselines. This article examines the mythological investments of two influential thinkers of the period—Goethe and Schelling. It then analyzes Goethe’s unique merger of mythological approaches to sex and generation with empirical observation in The Metamorphosis of Plants. It next traces Schelling’s expansion of Goethe’s theories of nature beyond their empirical justifications to develop a metaphysics of sexual differentiation. Finally, the article illuminates Goethe’s final reply to the sexual dynamics of Naturphilosophie at the end of his life, through the analysis of a single poem, “Finding Again,” in the collection God and World. Ultimately and in spite of its empirical commitments, Goethe’s more flexible view of sexual correlations would lose ground to the powerful metaphysical mythology of sexual opposition as both scientific and cultural bedrock.

中文翻译：

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性分裂和新神话：歌德和谢林。

德国浪漫主义时代所称的新神话并没有被认为是与经验主义或经验/实验知识相对的，而是与之对话形成的，从而构成了这种探究的文化基础。神话科学计划的核心是建立文化底线的有问题的性分裂和生殖理论。本文考察了歌德和席林这两位有影响力的思想家的神话投资。然后，通过《植物的变态》中的经验观察，分析歌德对性与世代神话方法的独特结合。。接下来，它追溯了谢林对歌德自然理论的扩展，超越了他们的经验论证，以发展性别分化的形而上学。最后，文章通过分析《上帝与世界》一集中的一首诗《再次寻找》，阐明了歌德对自然哲学的性动力的最终答复。归根结底，尽管有其经验性的承诺，但歌德对性相关的更为灵活的观点将失去科学性和文化性基石的强大的性对立形而上学神话。