The Morality of Knowledge
Three talks by Erich Heller
1: The Original Faustian Doctrine and its Abolition
In these talks Erich Heller discusses the changes in meaning which the story of Dr. Faustus has undergone since the appearance of the original German version in 1587. He believes that the different treatments the subject received at the hands of the first anonymous author, and then of Marlowe, Lessing, Goethe, Valery, and Thomas Mann , are the reflections of radically varying ideas about good and evil forces at work in man's search for truth. This leads Professor Heller to a critique of the naive and possibly fatal ' morality of knowledge' underlying the scientific and technological pursuits of our age.
Next talk: January 9