Book Details

The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe's Way of Science

Henri Bortoft

Price:	£20.00
Publication Date:	24 Oct 1996
Availability:	Available to buy
Restrictions:	Not available to buy in USA Canada

The scientific work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) represents a style of learning and understanding which is largely ignored today. The approach of modern science is largely detached, intellectual and analytical, and it is increasingly recognized that many of our contemporary problems stem from the resulting divorce from nature.

By contrast, Goethe's way of science pursued understanding through the experience of the 'authentic wholeness' of what was observed. Working with the intuitive mode of consciousness, Goethe aimed at an encounter with the whole phenomenon in its relationship with the observer. In his way of seeing, rather than dividing merely in order to categorize, we should investigate the parts of an object in order to reveal the true nature of the whole.

In this invaluable study, Henri Bortoft examines the phenomenological and cultural roots of Goethe's ways of science. He argues that Goethe's insights, far from belonging to the past, represent the foundation for a future science. This new science of nature, involving other human faculties besides the analytical mind, can provide understanding and explanation in a way which our present scientific attitudes, and the culture they serve, desperately lack.

About the Author(s)

Henri Bortoft has taught physics and the philosophy of science for most of his career. His postgraduate research was on the problem of wholeness in the quantum theory under David Bohm and Basil Hiley at Birkbeck College, London. He now lectures and gives seminars on Goethean science as well as the development of modern scientific consciousness.

Of Further Interest

Also available on Goethe:
Goethe on Science: An Anthology of Goethe's Scientific Writings edited by Jeremy Naydler
Emerson and Science: Goethe, Monism and the Search for Unity by Peter Obuchowski
Goethe and Palladio: Goethe's study of the relationship between art and nature, leading through architecture to the discovery of the metamorphosis of plants by David Lowe and Simon Sharp