Awakenings

"A spiritual understanding of nature on the basis of Goethe's
method of training observation and thought"



Goethean science is science based on the approach of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, author of FAUST, and who is most generally known for his poetry and literature.

Goethe himself in fact saw his principle contributions to culture as being in the area of science. He authored many works on science, notably The Metamorphosis of Plants and his Theory of Color. Goethe stressed that one had to start with the actual phenomenon, and that it impossible to divorce oneself from participation in nature, contrary to the method of contemporary science. As a generalization, it could be said that he was one of the first holistic thinkers, in the modern sense, to emerge in western culture.

His contributions are variously acknowledged. Using his morphological technique, he proved that the intermaxillary bone, known to exist in animals, could also be found in the human skull. At the time, the supposed lack of this bone was considered to be a significant differentiator between man and animals, this at the time just prior to the development of evolutionary thinking along the lines of Darwin.

He oppossed with might and main the concept of Newton's own theory of color (specifically, the idea of white light being "comprised" of the different wavelengths of colored light), and although his approach is discredited in the context of Newtonian and Quantum physics, the approach and understanding his Theory provides remains of ongoing interest to both artists and some among the more thoughtful scientists. It begins with the classic aristotelean notion of "cool" and "warm" colors (blues and reds); blues represent a lightening of black, reds a darkening of white. His conception is expressed poetically in the words "colors are the deeds and sufferings of light."

His idea of the "Urpflanze" or primal plant was the central theme of his Metamorphosis of Plants; he was a great opponent of the mere categorization of species after the manner of Linneaus, without understanding how the various forms and species developed as metamorphoses of each other. Simplistically stated, he saw all plant forms as transformations of the leaf. His method led him to what is sometimes rendered "the exact percipient fantasy," in other words, a direct perception of a supersensible reality from which a living thing derives its form.

Many of the approaches embodied in Goethe's scientific world-view are later found, metamorphosed, in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy or spiritual science. An excellent overview of Goethean science, as informed and extended by anthroposophy, is found in Ernst Lehrs Man or Matter.




An English Language Short Reading List
in Goethean Science


Scientific Studies
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
translation by Douglas Miller

1988 Suhrkamp Publishers New York

The definitive translation of the bulk of Goethe's scientific works, including Farbenlehre (Theory of Color), Metamorphosis of Plants, Fortunate Encounter, The Experiment as Mediator between Object and Subject, and much much more.

Theory of Colour

Charles Eastlake Translation

BLTC Press

An ebook version of this is available for the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle at www.bltcpress.com

Man or Matter
Ernst Lehrs

Third Edition 1985 Rudolf Steiner Press London

Lehrs surveys the development of the contemporary consesus world view of science and contrasts what he describes as the "onlooker consciousness" with the approach of Goethe, which stresses insight into how man can participate in the phenomenon. Lehrs develops, in the manner of Goethe, concepts of Levity, polar-euclidean space, physical substances as part of "nature's alphabet," the "optics of the doer" and much more. A foundation work.

(The 1951 edition of the book was apparently published without a copyright notice - a technical detail which has suffered that edition to enter into the public domain. It is available as text and html files at www.gutenberg.org and also in an ebook (LRF) format for the Sony PRS 500/505 at bltcpress.com)

The work was revised and reissued later in the fifties and then again in nineties by Rudolf Steiner Press in a revision worked on by Ernst Lehrs shortly before his death in the late seventies.)




Goethean Science: A Reappraisal
Amrine, Zucker, Wheeler, editors

1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrect


A collection of academic papers in the history and philosophy of science. Includes essays by Douglas Miller, Art Zajonc, others.

Catching the Light
Arthur Zajonc

1993 Bantam Books New York

A popular approach that focusses on the parallel development of man's understanding of light and the development of consciousness. More up-to-date than Lehrs in terms of the latest in contemporary physics, although not quite the literary work that Lehrs' is.



The Wholeness of Nature
Henri Bortoft

1996 Lindisfarne Press Hudson, New York

A Physicist who trained with David Bohm sees Goethe's approach -- his way of seeing -- as the basis for an experience of the wholeness of nature. Perhaps the best introduction for those steeped in contemporary science.



Rudolf Steiner's Science Courses

As part of his training of the first teachers of the Waldorf Schools, Rudolf Steiner gave a series of the three lecture cycles specifically on the sciences. They are of particular interest in that they show how his spiritual science, rooted in the Goethean approach, feeds back again into the study of Natural Science.



The Light Course
(First Science Course)
Rudolf Steiner

1977 Goethean Science Foundation, Clent, England

Rudolf Steiner, who edited the first comprehensive edition of Goethe's Scientific papers at the Goethe Archives in Weimar, gave three lecture cycles on scientific topics to a class of teachers at the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart. The 'Light Course' includes several optical experiments intended to demonstrate the Goethean understanding of color.



The Warmth Course
(Second Science Course)
Rudolf Steiner

1988 Mercury Press Spring Valley, New York

In this cycle Steiner develops his concept of heat as an entity distinct from simply a 'mode of motion' but rather the transition between the material and the etheric.

The Relationship of the Diverse Branches of Natural Science to Astronomy:
(Third Science Course)
Rudolf Steiner
Translator Unknown

Unpublished except as study notes, now partially available on-line here. This cycle explores the deep inter-relationships between the living cell, embryonic development, and the cosmos.