Goethe's Faust and the Minimal Action Principle: a possible Universal message

Abstract

This short note is devoted to non-proficient in physics. Its purpose is that of proposing a possible universal connection between the definition of Action given by Goethe in his ``Faust'' tragic play and the Hamilton's Principle of the Minimal Action. This Principle is one of the most general ways of formulating the dynamics of a physical system both in classical and in quantum physics. The recent discovery of the long time searched Higgs particle may be seen as the most spectacular successful confirmation of the Standard Model formalism based on the Minimal Action Principle. Supported by this experimental confirmation, we propose a possible general meaning of the Principle, inspired by the Goethe's ``Faust'' tragic play.