Goethean science

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Goethean science is a qualitative participatory approach to science developed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that emphasizes direct sensory experience, exact observation, and the perception of wholeness and dynamic form in nature. It is a way of knowing nature through deep disciplined perception where meaning arises not from detached analysis, but from empathetic participation in the life of phenomena.

Rather than reducing phenomena to parts or abstract laws, it seeks to understand them as living, evolving wholes through empathetic engagement and contemplative seeing.

Aspects

• contrast with the more widespread paradigm of mineral science going back to the foundations laid by Francis Bacon
• core characteristics
  • participatory knowing: the observer becomes inwardly active in the process of knowing; thinking is part of perception
    • see also the philosophy of Hegel
  • 'delicate empiricism': sustained, intimate observation without imposing theory
  • phenomenology before explanation: description and insight emerge from deep observation, not premature abstraction
  • seeing the Whole: understanding phenomena in context, not isolation
  • morphology & metamorphosis: tracing how form changes over time

split between two worldviews

• contemporary materialistic worldview of mineral science
  • Bacon (empirical science, knowledge from experiment) and Descartes (mathematical-abstract science) (1914-GA018, Part I, Chapter V)
  • the scientific method that originated with Francis Bacon (1561-1626): experiments are to torture and force nature to yield her secrets (rather than passive observation)
• spiritual worldview
  • rosecrucian movement, language of alchemy, Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)
  • Goethe (1749-1832) and Steiner (1861-1925) bringing an alternative to the scientific method - see Topic: Question about Goethe as a key
• other: see also the polarities materialism <-> spiritism on Schema FMC00.648 and Schema FMC00.648A on Philosophy#Illustrations

examples of contemporary goethean science

• see the work of o.a. Henri Bortoft (1938-2012) and Craig Holdrege

Lecture coverage and references

1897-G006, Chapter I & III

contrasts Bacon’s view (only the perceptible counts; ideas are merely subjective) with Goethe’s participatory and holistic method.

Bacon sees the ideal/idea as subjective, separate from nature, whereas Goethe sees observer and observed interwoven. Goethe insists that the scientist remain connected to the living soul, not detached, and that knowledge arises within this participatory relationship—with nature and the observer as aspects of one living process.

[Goethe] did not wish to torture nature to extract her secrets. He wanted to listen to her language and understand her expressions.

1914-GA018, Part I, Chapter V

juxtaposes Bacon’s inductive method—building general laws by collecting and abstracting countless individual observations—with Goethe’s and even Galileo’s search for the single essential insight (or 'aperçu') that reveals the underlying harmony of nature.

quote tbc

[Bacon’s method] is no more able to build a world‑conception in the soul of man than one can construct a house by merely inspecting the building stones... contrary to Bacon… Descartes and Spinoza turned their attention toward its plan

and

Francis Bacon and Descartes are to be regarded as the founders of that direction of thought which sees in the mere knowledge of nature’s laws the task of science.

He calls them "the two pillars" of the modern conception of knowledge, dividing spirit and matter (that is, the materialistic worldview of mineral science): Bacon for empirical science, building knowledge from experimentation, and Descartes for the mathematical-abstract science, grounding certainty in thought and geometry.

Bacon's method

1620 - Francis Bacon

in Novum Organum (1620), Book I, Aphorisms 3 and 98

The secrets of nature reveal themselves more readily under the vexations of art than when they go their own way.

...

For nature is only overcome by submission; and what in contemplation is as it were the cause, is in operation the rule.

The Latin vexatio (from which we get “vexation”) can mean "torment, agitation, violent disturbance." Bacon employs this in the context of forcing nature to yield her secrets through rigorous experimentation, rather than passive observation.

1924-03-31-GA239

And then, in the form appropriate to the age, this personality came again as Lord Bacon of Verulam, the founder of modern science. From England, Bacon of Verulam. gave a strong impetus to European thinking.

...

This was bound to come to expression in a subsequent incarnation. The wide and all embracing application of scientific method had to come to the fore—and so indeed it did. The outward brilliance that had characterised the Court of Haroun al Raschid came to clear expression in Bacon himself.

1924-06-12-GA239

Outwardly, they were reborn as men of very different characters. Haroun al Raschid appeared again as Lord Bacon of Verulam, the originator of the modern scientific mentality. Those who are capable of unprejudiced observation can see in everything that was forced upon the world by Bacon, a new edition of what was once cultivated over in the East. In the East men had turned away from Christianity. Bacon was outwardly a Christian, but inwardly, in his real aims, unchristian. The other man, the one who had once been the wise Counsellor, followed the path which led across to Middle Europe via the regions North of the Black Sea. It was he who as Amos Comenius brought Arabism over in a quite different form—a much deeper, more inward form than that in which it was introduced by Bacon—but who did, nevertheless, bear Arabism into the modern age. And so at the dawn of modern spiritual life, two streams intermingled.

Discussion

Note 1 - Bibliography related to a Goethean Phenomenological Approach to Science

This is a copy (for reference, just in case), of the excellent overview on: www.natureinstitute.org/bibliography-of-writings-on-goethean-science

(to be worked/condensed)

I. General/Foundations/History

• Goethe: Scientific Studies; the Collected Works, Vol. 12
  • Edited and translated by Douglas Miller (Princeton University Press, 1995)
  • This is probably the most comprehensive collection of Goethe's scientific writings in the English language at the present.
• Goethe on Science: An Anthology of Goethe's Scientific Writings
  • Selected and introduced by Jeremy Nadler (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1996)
  • A fine selection of Goethe's writings, often excerpts from essays, and also aphorisms, ordered by themes.
• Nature's Open Secret: Introduction to Goethe's Scientific Writings
• By Rudolf Steiner (Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic Press, reprinted 2000)
• These essays by Steiner, written between 1883 and 1897, still belong to the most penetrating elucidations of Goethe's scientific approach.
• Goethe's Way of Science
• Edited by David Seamon and Arthur Zajonc (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1998)
• This excellent collection of essays by contemporary authors considers both the philosophy of a Goethean approach to science and examples of practical application in different fields.
• The Wholeness of Nature
• By Henri Bortoft (Great Barrington, MA: Lindisfarne Press, 1996)
• A masterful philosophical introduction to a Goethean approach to science.
• Taking Appearance Seriously

• By Henri Bortoft (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 2012)

• Bortoft describes the pathway to a dynamic way of seeing and places it within the context of the development of modern science and philosophy.
• “Doing Goethean Science”
• 
By Craig Holdrege (2005)

• This article focuses on the practice of a Goethean approach.
• “Goethe and the Evolution of Science”

• By Craig Holdrege (2014)

• This article describes some of Goethe’s work in botany and animal morphology, and shows the relevance of his approach today.
• Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal
• Edited by Frederick Amrine et al. (D. Reidel Pub. Co., 1987)
• This volume contains many excellent discussions of Goethe's approach to science.
• Goethe's Delicate Empiricism

• A special issue of the journal Janus Head that contains many articles on Goethe's approach from a variety of perspectives. Published in 2005.
• The Marriage of Sense and Thought
• By Stephen Edelglass, Georg Maier, Hans Gerbert, John Davy (Great Barrington, MA: Lindisfarne Press, 1997)
• A clear and concise discussion of a phenomena-based approach to science.
• Wonders of Development: In Plants, People, and Projects
• By Jan Diek van Mansvelt (Hillsdale, NY: Adonis Press, 2022)
• Goethe's Science of Living Form: The Artistic Stages
• By Nigel Hoffmann (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2007)
• The Organism
• By Kurt Goldstein (New York: Zone Books, 1995)
• Goldstein's main work, describing his holistic approach to science; most of the examples are drawn from neurobiology. A classic.
• Toward a Phenomenology of the Etheric World
• Edited by Jochen Bockemühl (Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic Press, 1985)
• The contributions in this volume explore different applications of the Goethean approach in biology and physics. They were written for an audience familiar with Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy.
• The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe
• By Robert J. Richards (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002)
• The Will to Create: Goethe's Philosophy of Nature
• By Astrida Orle Tantillo (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002)
• The Vortex of Life - Nature's Patterns in Space and Time
• By Lawrence Edwards (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1993)

II. Botany

• The Metamorphosis of Plants
• By J.W. von Goethe (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2009)
• This new edition contains beautiful color photographs and an introduction by Gordon Miller.
• Goethe's Botanical Writings
• By J.W. von Goethe, translated by Bertha Mueller (Woodbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press, 1989)
• Thinking Like a Plant: A Living Science for Life

• By Craig Holdrege (Great Barrington, MA: Lindisfarne Books, 2013)

• This book shows how we can learn from plants to think in more dynamic and context-sensitive ways — the plant as a teacher of living thinking.
• Awakening to Landscape
• By Jochen Bockemühl (Dornach, Switzerland: Natural Science Section, Goetheanum)
• In Partnership with Nature
• By Jochen Bockemühl (Wyoming, RI: Biodynamic Literature, 1981)
• Metamorphosis of Plants
• By Jochen Bockemühl and Andreas Suchanke (Cape Town: Novalis Press, 1995)
• A New Eye for Plants
• By M. Colquhoun and A. Ewald (Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press, 1996)
• The Plant, Vol. I and II
• By G. Grohman (Kimberton, PA: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Assoc., 1989)
• The Living World of Plants: A Book for Children and Students of Nature
• By G. Grohman (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 1999)
• Planetary Influences upon Plants
• By E. M. Kranich (Wyoming, RI: Biodynamic Literature, 1984)
• About Formative Forces in Plants
• By Dick von Romunde (Jannebeth Roell, 2003)
• “The Concept of Morphological Polarity and Its Implication on the Concept of the Essential Organs and on the Concept of the Organisation Type of the Dicotyledonous Plant”
• By P. Schilperoord-Jarke in Acta Biotheoretica vol. 45 (1997), pp. 51-63
• “Goethe’s Metamorphosis of Plants and Modern Plant Genetics”
• By Peer Schilperoord-Jarke in Goethes Beitrag zur Erneuerung der Naturwissenschaften, edited by Peter Heusser and translated by P. Schilperoord-Jarke (Bern: Verlag Paulhaupt, 2000)

III. Zoology

• Seeing the Animal Whole — And Why it Matters
• By Craig Holdrege (Lindisfarne Books; 2021)
• Threefoldness in Humans and Mammals: Toward a Biology of Form (2 Volumes)
• 
By Wolfgang Schad (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2020)
• Do Frogs Come from Tadpoles? Rethinking Origins in Development and Evolution
• By Craig Holdrege (Great Barrington, MA: Evolving Science Association, 2017)
• The Giraffe’s Long Neck: From Evolutionary Fable to Whole Organism
• By Craig Holdrege (Ghent, NY: The Nature Institute, 2005)
• The Flexible Giant: Seeing the Elephant Whole
• By Craig Holdrege (Ghent, NY: The Nature Institute, 2003)
• “Horns, Hooves, Spots, and Stripes: Form and Pattern in Mammals”
• By Mark Riegner in Orion vol. 4, pp. 22-35 (1985)
• “Essays in Philosophical Zoology: The Living Form and the Seeing Eye”
• By Adolf Portmann in Problems in Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. 20 (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991)
• Animal Forms and Patterns
• By Adolf Portmann (New York: Schocken Books, 1967)
• IV. Human Biology
• Functional Morphology: The Dynamic Wholeness of the Human Organism
• By Johannes Rohen (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2007)
• From Mechanism to Organism: Enlivening the Study of Human Biology
• By Michael Holdrege (Hudson, NY: Waldorf Publications, 2022)
• The Heart and Circulation: An Integrative Model
• By Branko Furst (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland, Second Edition, 2020)
• The Dynamic Heart and Circulation
• Edited by Craig Holdrege (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 2002)
• Living With Your Body
• By Walther Buehler (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996)
• Bolk Companions to the Practice of Medicine
• Published by The Louis Bolk Institute in the Netherlands, on topics such as anatomy, physiology, embryology, and biochemistry. They address the multitude of facts in medical textbooks in the context of a phenomenological approach.

V. Ecology

• The Earth's Face
• By E. Pfeiffer (East Grinstead, UK: The Langthorn Press, 1988)
• Eco-Geography
• By Andreas Suchantke (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 2001)
• Moon Rhythms in Nature
• By Klaus-Peter Endres and Wolfgang Schad (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1997)
• “Toward a Holistic Understanding of Place: Reading a Landscape Through its Flora and Fauna”
• By Mark Riegner in Dwelling, Seeing, and Designing, D. Seamon, ed. (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993)

VI. Genetics and Genetic Engineering

• Genetics and the Manipulation of Life
• By Craig Holdrege (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1996)
• Beyond Biotechnology
• By Craig Holdrege and Steve Talbott (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008)
• “Genetic Engineering and the Intrinsic Value and Integrity of Animals and Plants”
• Edited by David Heaf & Johannes Wirz (Ifgene, 2002)
• Proceedings of a Workshop at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, UK 18-21 September 2002.
• The Future of DNA
• Edited by Johannes Wirz and Edith Lammerts von Bueren (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997)
• “Progress Toward Complementarity in Genetics”
• By Johannes Wirz (1998)

VII. Evolution

• Do Frogs Come from Tadpoles? Rethinking Origins in Development and Evolution
• By Craig Holdrege (Great Barrington, MA: Evolving Science Association, 2017)
• On the Origin of Autonomy
• By Bernd Rosslenbroich (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2014)
• Metamorphosis: Evolution in Action
• By Andreas Suchantke (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2009)
• Thinking Beyond Darwin
• By E.M. Kranich (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1999)
• Developmental Dynamics
• By J. Verhulst (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2003)
• “The Theory of Increasing Autonomy in Evolution: A Proposal for Understanding Macroevolutionary Innovations”
• By Bernd Rosslenbroich in Biology and Philosophy vol. 24, pp. 623-44. (2009)
• The Spirit in Human Evolution
• By Martyn Rawson (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 2003)
• Hope, Evolution, and Change
• By John Davy (Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press, 1986)
• Childhood and Human Evolution
• By Friedrich Kipp (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2005)

VIII. Color and Light

• Theory of Colours
• By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1970; reprint of original English translation from 1840)
• Seeing Colour: A Journey Through Goethe’s World of Colour
• By Nora Löbe, Matthias Rang, Troy Vine (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 2022)
• What is Colour?
• By Michael Wilson (Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2018)
• Rainbows, Halos, Dawn and Dusk: The Appearance of Color in the Atmosphere and Goethe's Theory of Colors
• By Johannes Kühl (Ghent, NY: Adonis Press, 2016)
• Catching the Light
• By Arthur Zajonc (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)
• Goethe Contra Newton: Polemics and the Project for a New Science of Color
• By Dennis L. Sepper (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)
• “Exploratory Experimentation: Goethe, Land, and Color Theory”
• By Neil Ribe and Friedrich Steinle in Physics Today (July 2002)
• “Goethe’s Theory of Color and Scientific Intuition”
• By Arthur Zajonc in American Journal of Physics vol. 44, p. 327ff (1976)

IX. Astronomy

• Sky Phenomena: A Guide to Naked Eye Observation of the Stars
• By Norman Davidson (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1993)
• Astronomy: An Introduction
• By Hermann von Baravalle (Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press, 2000)

X. General Physics

• Forming Concepts in Physics
• By Georg Unger (Spring Valley, NY: Parker Courtney Press, 1995)

XI. Fluid Dynamics

• Sensitive Chaos
• By Theodore Schwenk (New York: Schocken Books, 1978)
• Water: The Element of Life
• By Theodore Schwenk and Wolfram Schwenk (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1989)

XII. Teaching Phenomenological Science and Mathematics

• To the Infinite and Back Again: A Workbook in Projective Geometry
• By Henrike Holdrege (Great Barrington, MA: Evolving Science Association, 2019)
• Teaching Physics Phenomenologically: Electricity and the Practice of Embodied Learning
• By Wilfried Sommer (Kassel, Germany: Pädagogische Forschungsstelle, 2019)
• From Mechanism to Organism: Enlivening the Study of Human Biology
• By Michael Holdrege (Hudson, NY: Waldorf Publications, 2022)
• A Phenomena-Based Physics
• By Manfred von Mackensen (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 1994); Vol. 1: grade 6; Vol. 1: grade 7; Vol. 3: grade 8
• Phenomenological Organic Chemistry
• By Manfred von Mackensen (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 2009); grade 9 Chemistry
• Sensible Physics Teaching
• By Michael D'Aleo and Stephan Edelglass (Spring Valley, NY: Parker Courtney Press, 1999); for grades 6-8
• Fundamentals for Phenomenological Study of Chemistry
• By Frits Julius (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 2000); for grades 10-12
• The Wonders of Waldorf Chemistry
• By David Mitchell (Fair Oaks, CA: AWSNA, 2001); for grades 7-9

Related pages

• Goethe
• worldview
• philosophy

References and further reading

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (edited by Douglas Miller): 'Scientific Studies'
• Jahrbuch für Goetheanismus

General

• Readings in Goethean science: compilation and introduction by Linda S. Jolly and Herbert H. Koepf (1978)
• Ed. by Frederick Amrine, Francis J. Zucker and Harvey Wheeler: 'Goethe and the sciences : a reappraisal' (1987)
• Jeremy Naydler: 'Goethe on science' (1996)
• Ed. by David Seamon, Arthur Zajonc: 'Goethe's way of science : A phenomenology of nature' (1998)
• Henri Bortoft (1938-2012)
  • 'Goethean Science' - Toward a phenomenological approach (1986)
    • a shorter book of approx. 100 pages; practical and didactic, on method & applications
    • A concise introduction to Goethe’s scientific method based on Bortoft’s lectures at Schumacher College.   Methodological and didactic, emphasizes how Goethe approached science differently than Newtonian science. Teaches the reader to see wholes, not parts. Introduces concepts like delicate empiricism, dynamic seeing, and the phenomenology of perception.
  • 'The wholeness of nature : Goethe's way of science' (1996)
    • incl. oa 'Goethe's scientific consciousness' (1986)
    • a longer book of approx. 300 pages, more profound on epistemology & philosophy, and understanding the why of the seeing
    • Epistemological deep dive. Traces the historical evolution of Western scientific thought and situates Goethe’s science in relation to modern physics, hermeneutics, and phenomenology. Unpacks the meaning of wholeness and how to think dynamically. Discusses participation, non-reductionist thinking, and the inner act of seeing.
  • 'Taking Appearance Seriously. The Dynamic Way of Seeing in Goethe and European Thought' (2012)
• Nature Institute (Craig Holdrege et al.)
  • A Bibliography of Writings related to a Goethean Phenomenological Approach to Science and Biology
  • modern applications of Goethean science, eg 'Thinking Like a Plant', 'The Giraffe's Long Neck', etc

Light and colour

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 'Theory of Colours'
  • Goethe’s alternative to Newtonian optics. More than just a scientific text, also a philosophical exploration of perception.
• Michael Wilson: 'What is colour? : the Goethean approach to a fundamental problem' (1949)
• Maria Schindler: Goethe's theory of colour : revised and greatly enlarged edition (1964, also appeared as 'Pure colour')
• Arthur Zajonc: 'Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind' (1993)

Various

• Frits H. Julius (1902-1970)
  • 'Goetheanistische chemie : een bijdrage tot een niet-atomistische natuurbeschouwin'g (1936), in DE 1960 as 'Stoffeswelt und Menschenbildung : Chemie an einfachen Phänomenen dargestellt : Teil I'
  • Fundamentals for a Phenomenological Study of Chemistry (2000 in EN), also in DE as Grundlagen einer phänomenologischen Chemie : Stoffeswelt und Menschenbildung, Teil II (1988), in FR 2010 as 'Bases pour une chimie phénoménologique'
  • various other works also, see below and search site for more

Further

see also:

• Plant kingdom#Metamorphosis
• Animal kingdom#Metamorphosis