His scientific works include his 1790 Metamorphosis of Plants and his 1810 book Theory of Colors. His work in optics, and his polemics against the reigning Newtonian theory of optics, were poorly received by the scientific establishment of his time.
Background
By the middle of the 1700s, Western philosophy had reached an ethical and epistemological cul-de-sac. The Enlightenment or Age of Reason was based on a static view of human nature, an increasingly mechanical view of the universe (based on Copernican astronomy, Galilean mechanics and Newtonian physics) and a linear view of the progress of scientific knowledge (based on a mechano-material, reductionist approach). This rationalist approach, what one commentator has termed the ‘one-eyed, color blind’ perspective of the world, raised fundamental issues about “God, freedom and immortality” (Kant) of growing concern to a culture undergoing significant economic, political and cultural transformation.
Goethe and the Evolution of Science with Craig Holdrege (Holistic Science lecture)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was both creative artist and scientist. He viewed and practiced science as a participatory endeavor – an evolving dialogue between the human being and nature. He believed the human being needs to develop ever more refined capacities to do justice to the deeper nature of nature. In this talk, Craig Holdrege will present key features of the Goethean approach to science, based on Goethe’s own research, and discuss its relevance for the present and future.
Craig Holdrege is the founder and director of The Nature Institute in Ghent, NY (https://www.natureinstitute.org/).
Organised by Dartington Trust's Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. Find out more about the BSc Holistic Science at Schumacher College at https://www.schumachercol...
published: 16 Mar 2021
Stephan Harding Practicing Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Methods
Animate Earth is a documentary film written and presented by Dr Stephan Harding, renowned ecologist and colleague of James Lovelock. Stephan puts forward a radical approach to the ecological crisis by arguing that many of the problems we now face stem from having lost our intuitive relationship with nature. Stephan believes that traditional mechanistic science has inadvertently fuelled the crisis and that we urgently need to develop an expanded science that cultivates intuitive wisdom alongside rational knowledge so that we can experience everything, from the smallest microbes to our planet's great life-sustaining cycles, as deeply interconnected.
The film features interviews with leading environmentalists, scientists and spiritual leaders, including Brian Goodwin, Iain McGilchrist, Fritj...
published: 21 Nov 2012
Diagramming German Idealism 5: Goethe's Participatory Scientific Method
Goethe's Study of Metamorphosis in Light, Leaf, and Bone
presentation on Goethean science
published: 13 Feb 2021
Goethean Science: Penetrating Nature's Open Secrets
The Newtonian approach to science is not the only way “to know” nature. A lesser known but equally important parallel to Newton is the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a scientist who was already seeing a need to balance a purely quantitative Cartesian science with a qualitative science, where the human could be trained to penetrate into the “open secrets” of nature. This "lost side of science means involving the sensual and subjective side of the human in the equation of objective science. This “Goethean science” is taught in the Waldorf Schools, where students learn to enter into a living relationship with the morphological phenomena of nature “to know” it from the inside out - rather than just the outside in.
published: 12 May 2019
Goethe, Organisms, and Biology Today
GREGORY RUPIK | Writing-Up Fellow at the KLI
Challenges to the gene-centric, reductionist foundations of contemporary biology have increased in frequency and strength over the last few decades, and calls for an "organism-centric" biology have been sounded by biologists and philosophers alike. Greg Rupik's research focuses on the biological works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (better known as a poet than as a scientist!) and many of his contemporaries, and argues that the German "Romantic biology" that Goethe contributed to at the turn of the 19th century is a fecund resource for the current challenge of rethinking biology with organisms, not genes, at its center. Importantly, Goethe's biology is compatible with mechanical explanations, eschews dualistic vitalism, rejects religiously-inf...
published: 30 Sep 2019
Goethean Science - Arthur Zajonc and Craig Holdredge
Goethe’s Polemics against Newton: A Morphological Approach to History of Science
Newton’s and Goethe’s approach to colours are usually presented as diametrically opposed. Heisenberg, for example, contended that Newton and Goethe investigated separate domains, namely physical and psychological colours respectively. Wittgenstein is more extreme when he claims that “phenomenological analysis (as e.g. Goethe would have it) is analysis of concepts and can neither agree with or contradict physics”. The problem with such an interpretation, however, is that it renders Goethe’s polemics against Newton misguided and mistaken.
The paradox is that the more we make Goethe’s approach differ from Newton’s, the less effective and more mistaken his critique of Newton becomes. It seems we can’t have both. Yet if we take a morphological approach and place Newton in a sequence between De...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was both creative artist and scientist. He viewed and practiced science as a participatory endeavor – an evolving dialogu...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was both creative artist and scientist. He viewed and practiced science as a participatory endeavor – an evolving dialogue between the human being and nature. He believed the human being needs to develop ever more refined capacities to do justice to the deeper nature of nature. In this talk, Craig Holdrege will present key features of the Goethean approach to science, based on Goethe’s own research, and discuss its relevance for the present and future.
Craig Holdrege is the founder and director of The Nature Institute in Ghent, NY (https://www.natureinstitute.org/).
Organised by Dartington Trust's Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. Find out more about the BSc Holistic Science at Schumacher College at https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/postgraduate-courses/holistic-science.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was both creative artist and scientist. He viewed and practiced science as a participatory endeavor – an evolving dialogue between the human being and nature. He believed the human being needs to develop ever more refined capacities to do justice to the deeper nature of nature. In this talk, Craig Holdrege will present key features of the Goethean approach to science, based on Goethe’s own research, and discuss its relevance for the present and future.
Craig Holdrege is the founder and director of The Nature Institute in Ghent, NY (https://www.natureinstitute.org/).
Organised by Dartington Trust's Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. Find out more about the BSc Holistic Science at Schumacher College at https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/postgraduate-courses/holistic-science.
Animate Earth is a documentary film written and presented by Dr Stephan Harding, renowned ecologist and colleague of James Lovelock. Stephan puts forward a radi...
Animate Earth is a documentary film written and presented by Dr Stephan Harding, renowned ecologist and colleague of James Lovelock. Stephan puts forward a radical approach to the ecological crisis by arguing that many of the problems we now face stem from having lost our intuitive relationship with nature. Stephan believes that traditional mechanistic science has inadvertently fuelled the crisis and that we urgently need to develop an expanded science that cultivates intuitive wisdom alongside rational knowledge so that we can experience everything, from the smallest microbes to our planet's great life-sustaining cycles, as deeply interconnected.
The film features interviews with leading environmentalists, scientists and spiritual leaders, including Brian Goodwin, Iain McGilchrist, Fritjof Capra, Vandana Shiva, Jules Cashford and Satish Kumar.
Find out more: http://animateearth.com/Animate_Earth/the_film.html
Buy the movie on Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animate-Earth-Science-Intuition-Gaia/dp/B005QASZHE/re...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ANIMATEEARTH
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnimateEarth
Animate Earth is a documentary film written and presented by Dr Stephan Harding, renowned ecologist and colleague of James Lovelock. Stephan puts forward a radical approach to the ecological crisis by arguing that many of the problems we now face stem from having lost our intuitive relationship with nature. Stephan believes that traditional mechanistic science has inadvertently fuelled the crisis and that we urgently need to develop an expanded science that cultivates intuitive wisdom alongside rational knowledge so that we can experience everything, from the smallest microbes to our planet's great life-sustaining cycles, as deeply interconnected.
The film features interviews with leading environmentalists, scientists and spiritual leaders, including Brian Goodwin, Iain McGilchrist, Fritjof Capra, Vandana Shiva, Jules Cashford and Satish Kumar.
Find out more: http://animateearth.com/Animate_Earth/the_film.html
Buy the movie on Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animate-Earth-Science-Intuition-Gaia/dp/B005QASZHE/re...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ANIMATEEARTH
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnimateEarth
To read more about Henri Bortoft and this lecture please see: https://transitionconsciousness.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/henri-bortofts-lecture-on-goethean-scienc...
The Newtonian approach to science is not the only way “to know” nature. A lesser known but equally important parallel to Newton is the work of Johann Wolfgang v...
The Newtonian approach to science is not the only way “to know” nature. A lesser known but equally important parallel to Newton is the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a scientist who was already seeing a need to balance a purely quantitative Cartesian science with a qualitative science, where the human could be trained to penetrate into the “open secrets” of nature. This "lost side of science means involving the sensual and subjective side of the human in the equation of objective science. This “Goethean science” is taught in the Waldorf Schools, where students learn to enter into a living relationship with the morphological phenomena of nature “to know” it from the inside out - rather than just the outside in.
The Newtonian approach to science is not the only way “to know” nature. A lesser known but equally important parallel to Newton is the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a scientist who was already seeing a need to balance a purely quantitative Cartesian science with a qualitative science, where the human could be trained to penetrate into the “open secrets” of nature. This "lost side of science means involving the sensual and subjective side of the human in the equation of objective science. This “Goethean science” is taught in the Waldorf Schools, where students learn to enter into a living relationship with the morphological phenomena of nature “to know” it from the inside out - rather than just the outside in.
GREGORY RUPIK | Writing-Up Fellow at the KLI
Challenges to the gene-centric, reductionist foundations of contemporary biology have increased in frequency and...
GREGORY RUPIK | Writing-Up Fellow at the KLI
Challenges to the gene-centric, reductionist foundations of contemporary biology have increased in frequency and strength over the last few decades, and calls for an "organism-centric" biology have been sounded by biologists and philosophers alike. Greg Rupik's research focuses on the biological works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (better known as a poet than as a scientist!) and many of his contemporaries, and argues that the German "Romantic biology" that Goethe contributed to at the turn of the 19th century is a fecund resource for the current challenge of rethinking biology with organisms, not genes, at its center. Importantly, Goethe's biology is compatible with mechanical explanations, eschews dualistic vitalism, rejects religiously-inflected teleology, is grounded in evolutionary processes, and affords organisms an active role in their development.
Greg is completing his PhD at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. To follow Greg's research, follow him on Twitter: @GregoryRupik
Produced by Biofaction
www.biofaction.com
GREGORY RUPIK | Writing-Up Fellow at the KLI
Challenges to the gene-centric, reductionist foundations of contemporary biology have increased in frequency and strength over the last few decades, and calls for an "organism-centric" biology have been sounded by biologists and philosophers alike. Greg Rupik's research focuses on the biological works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (better known as a poet than as a scientist!) and many of his contemporaries, and argues that the German "Romantic biology" that Goethe contributed to at the turn of the 19th century is a fecund resource for the current challenge of rethinking biology with organisms, not genes, at its center. Importantly, Goethe's biology is compatible with mechanical explanations, eschews dualistic vitalism, rejects religiously-inflected teleology, is grounded in evolutionary processes, and affords organisms an active role in their development.
Greg is completing his PhD at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. To follow Greg's research, follow him on Twitter: @GregoryRupik
Produced by Biofaction
www.biofaction.com
Newton’s and Goethe’s approach to colours are usually presented as diametrically opposed. Heisenberg, for example, contended that Newton and Goethe investigated...
Newton’s and Goethe’s approach to colours are usually presented as diametrically opposed. Heisenberg, for example, contended that Newton and Goethe investigated separate domains, namely physical and psychological colours respectively. Wittgenstein is more extreme when he claims that “phenomenological analysis (as e.g. Goethe would have it) is analysis of concepts and can neither agree with or contradict physics”. The problem with such an interpretation, however, is that it renders Goethe’s polemics against Newton misguided and mistaken.
The paradox is that the more we make Goethe’s approach differ from Newton’s, the less effective and more mistaken his critique of Newton becomes. It seems we can’t have both. Yet if we take a morphological approach and place Newton in a sequence between Descartes and Goethe, we can indeed give an account that allows Goethe’s approach to radically differ from Newton’s whilst also preserving his critique. In this talk I will present such an account and therewith an example of what could be called a morphological approach to history of science.
This talk is part of our exciting series of free monthly talks on the subject of Holistic Science, organised by Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. You can view the full series, including recordings of previous talks, here: www.dartington.org/holisticsciencetalks
Newton’s and Goethe’s approach to colours are usually presented as diametrically opposed. Heisenberg, for example, contended that Newton and Goethe investigated separate domains, namely physical and psychological colours respectively. Wittgenstein is more extreme when he claims that “phenomenological analysis (as e.g. Goethe would have it) is analysis of concepts and can neither agree with or contradict physics”. The problem with such an interpretation, however, is that it renders Goethe’s polemics against Newton misguided and mistaken.
The paradox is that the more we make Goethe’s approach differ from Newton’s, the less effective and more mistaken his critique of Newton becomes. It seems we can’t have both. Yet if we take a morphological approach and place Newton in a sequence between Descartes and Goethe, we can indeed give an account that allows Goethe’s approach to radically differ from Newton’s whilst also preserving his critique. In this talk I will present such an account and therewith an example of what could be called a morphological approach to history of science.
This talk is part of our exciting series of free monthly talks on the subject of Holistic Science, organised by Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. You can view the full series, including recordings of previous talks, here: www.dartington.org/holisticsciencetalks
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was both creative artist and scientist. He viewed and practiced science as a participatory endeavor – an evolving dialogue between the human being and nature. He believed the human being needs to develop ever more refined capacities to do justice to the deeper nature of nature. In this talk, Craig Holdrege will present key features of the Goethean approach to science, based on Goethe’s own research, and discuss its relevance for the present and future.
Craig Holdrege is the founder and director of The Nature Institute in Ghent, NY (https://www.natureinstitute.org/).
Organised by Dartington Trust's Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. Find out more about the BSc Holistic Science at Schumacher College at https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/postgraduate-courses/holistic-science.
Animate Earth is a documentary film written and presented by Dr Stephan Harding, renowned ecologist and colleague of James Lovelock. Stephan puts forward a radical approach to the ecological crisis by arguing that many of the problems we now face stem from having lost our intuitive relationship with nature. Stephan believes that traditional mechanistic science has inadvertently fuelled the crisis and that we urgently need to develop an expanded science that cultivates intuitive wisdom alongside rational knowledge so that we can experience everything, from the smallest microbes to our planet's great life-sustaining cycles, as deeply interconnected.
The film features interviews with leading environmentalists, scientists and spiritual leaders, including Brian Goodwin, Iain McGilchrist, Fritjof Capra, Vandana Shiva, Jules Cashford and Satish Kumar.
Find out more: http://animateearth.com/Animate_Earth/the_film.html
Buy the movie on Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animate-Earth-Science-Intuition-Gaia/dp/B005QASZHE/re...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ANIMATEEARTH
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnimateEarth
The Newtonian approach to science is not the only way “to know” nature. A lesser known but equally important parallel to Newton is the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a scientist who was already seeing a need to balance a purely quantitative Cartesian science with a qualitative science, where the human could be trained to penetrate into the “open secrets” of nature. This "lost side of science means involving the sensual and subjective side of the human in the equation of objective science. This “Goethean science” is taught in the Waldorf Schools, where students learn to enter into a living relationship with the morphological phenomena of nature “to know” it from the inside out - rather than just the outside in.
GREGORY RUPIK | Writing-Up Fellow at the KLI
Challenges to the gene-centric, reductionist foundations of contemporary biology have increased in frequency and strength over the last few decades, and calls for an "organism-centric" biology have been sounded by biologists and philosophers alike. Greg Rupik's research focuses on the biological works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (better known as a poet than as a scientist!) and many of his contemporaries, and argues that the German "Romantic biology" that Goethe contributed to at the turn of the 19th century is a fecund resource for the current challenge of rethinking biology with organisms, not genes, at its center. Importantly, Goethe's biology is compatible with mechanical explanations, eschews dualistic vitalism, rejects religiously-inflected teleology, is grounded in evolutionary processes, and affords organisms an active role in their development.
Greg is completing his PhD at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. To follow Greg's research, follow him on Twitter: @GregoryRupik
Produced by Biofaction
www.biofaction.com
Newton’s and Goethe’s approach to colours are usually presented as diametrically opposed. Heisenberg, for example, contended that Newton and Goethe investigated separate domains, namely physical and psychological colours respectively. Wittgenstein is more extreme when he claims that “phenomenological analysis (as e.g. Goethe would have it) is analysis of concepts and can neither agree with or contradict physics”. The problem with such an interpretation, however, is that it renders Goethe’s polemics against Newton misguided and mistaken.
The paradox is that the more we make Goethe’s approach differ from Newton’s, the less effective and more mistaken his critique of Newton becomes. It seems we can’t have both. Yet if we take a morphological approach and place Newton in a sequence between Descartes and Goethe, we can indeed give an account that allows Goethe’s approach to radically differ from Newton’s whilst also preserving his critique. In this talk I will present such an account and therewith an example of what could be called a morphological approach to history of science.
This talk is part of our exciting series of free monthly talks on the subject of Holistic Science, organised by Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. You can view the full series, including recordings of previous talks, here: www.dartington.org/holisticsciencetalks
His scientific works include his 1790 Metamorphosis of Plants and his 1810 book Theory of Colors. His work in optics, and his polemics against the reigning Newtonian theory of optics, were poorly received by the scientific establishment of his time.
Background
By the middle of the 1700s, Western philosophy had reached an ethical and epistemological cul-de-sac. The Enlightenment or Age of Reason was based on a static view of human nature, an increasingly mechanical view of the universe (based on Copernican astronomy, Galilean mechanics and Newtonian physics) and a linear view of the progress of scientific knowledge (based on a mechano-material, reductionist approach). This rationalist approach, what one commentator has termed the ‘one-eyed, color blind’ perspective of the world, raised fundamental issues about “God, freedom and immortality” (Kant) of growing concern to a culture undergoing significant economic, political and cultural transformation.
The book began in the true spirit of enquiry; what would she be looking for? Why would she travel to these parts? Simultaneously, I came upon Goethean science while conversing with a friend studying at Schumacher College.