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"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.
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.
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.
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What is Goethean Science?