Modernidade, razão, ciência e direito: um estudo a partir do Fausto de Goethe

Abstract

By employing a macrophilosophical approach that integrates Literature, Philosophy, and Law, this paper examines how the myth of Doctor Faustus represents the interplay between imma-nence and transcendence in modern thought. It consists in making the diversity of ideas, mentalities, lifestyles, and beliefs that characterize Modernity — and are shared by its subjects — converge into a work that artistically expresses it. Here, Goethe’s Faust is purposefully inter-preted as an allegory of Modernity. In this historical period, the immanent constitution of sci-entific and legal norms requires an appeal to a transcendent authority, albeit one that is distinct from traditional conceptions of God. In the Cartesian and Kantian philosophical systems, the notion of God is indispensable—respectively, to guarantee the truth of subjective representations and to satisfy the demands of the immediate consciousness that the individual possesses of the moral law. Similarly, modern science, while not resorting to qualitative and teleological explanations of natural phenomena, recognizes the autonomy of theologians in matters of faith, the existence of non-physical forces that elucidate the functioning of the world, or a religious purpose underlying scientific investigation itself. Ultimately, the historical development of Law and the State is driven by religious concerns: the bureaucratic and administrative apparatus of political power derives from medieval ecclesiastical structures; the system of fundamental rights emerged from the need for coexistence among diverse sects within a single territory; and the belief in humanity’s progress results from the secularization of the Christian eschatological model. Cartesian and Kantian metaphysics, the development of the sciences, and the history of Law and the State will be linked to the two aspirations that drive Faust: the will to master natural elements and the ambition to establish a State in which the people are free. Faust takes the place of God in the world, but, at the end of his life, he is saved precisely by this pretension of placing himself as the center of reality. Thus, it is argued that, much like Faust, Modernity constitutes a project centered on recognizing the absolute value of humanity and its freedom—yet this does not entail the absence of a divine figure. The idea of God is essential to modern scientific and juridical discourse — just as it is necessary for the success-ful fulfillment of the Faustian aspiration. Faust thus mirrors Modernity because what constitutes them both is a permanent relationship between immanence and transcendence.