"In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was God." The Language Critique of Fritz Mauthner and Goethe

Fritz Mauthner, philosopher, writer, & founder of a radical philosophical critique of language, has recently enjoyed a kind of Renaissance. The fact that the Goethe-year 1999 is simultaneously the 150th anniversary of Mauthner's birth makes this article concerning their relationship seem especially timely. Both engage in a radical critique of language, above all of the "word of all words," which was "in the beginning" as "logos," although in the end Goethe places more faith in words & language than does Mauthner. This investigation of the complex interconnections between Goethe & Mauthner interprets the Faust tragedy as an extremely witty semiotic tragicomedy, Faustian in its seeking, Mephistophelian in its spirit. Adapted from the source document