Goetheanism

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Goetheanism is a term commonly used in the context of anthroposophy and Waldorf education for a holistic oriented science methodology. The scientific works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe are regarded as the paradigmatic foundation of this methodology. It was theoretically founded by Rudolf Steiner as editor and commentator of Goethe's scientific writings (1883-1897) and as author of an "Epistemology of Goethe's Worldview" (1886). Goetheanist research strives to combine empirical Methodology and holistic understanding of essence, with the aim to overcome the epistemological split between subject and object. [1]

Contents

History and name

The word Goetheanism first appears in 1803 in a letter from the Swedish poet and diplomat Karl Gustaf von Brinkman to Goethe. [2] He used it to refer to Goethe's overall devotion to the world. However, this term did not become generally used in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, often spoke of "Goetheanism" in lectures, by which he meant mainly, but not exclusively, the method underlying Goethe's studies of nature. [3] Thus the word became common among anthroposophists. Outside these circles, on the other hand, it is not used to this day, not even by natural scientists who - like the botanist Wilhelm Troll or the zoologist Adolf Portmann - explicitly follow Goethe in terms of methodology.

Even within anthroposophical circles there is no agreement on the meaning of the term "Goetheanism".

Thus the Goetheanist Wolfgang Schad writes: "It is used to denote: a) For example, simply throughout everything that is scientific work in anthroposophical contexts. [...] c) The experimental verification of many of Steiner's statements with the methods of the university natural sciences. d) Any poetic, aesthetically experiencing approach to nature without any claim to science. e) The cultural-scientific contents in art, art history, history, linguistics and literature oriented towards anthroposophy.
f) The arts that have grown out of anthroposophy, such as eurythmy and the organic style in architecture [...]." [4]

In terms of scientific methodology, the term Goetheanist has been coined in more recent times mainly by the Schriften des frühen Goetheanismus edited by Renate Riemeck (c. 1980) and the book series Goetheanistische Naturwissenschaft edited by Wolfgang Schad (1982-1985), which mainly brings together publications by anthroposophical biologists such as Jochen Bockemühl, Andreas Suchantke and Schad himself. In fundamental essays, leading Goetheanists emphasise the close connection of Goetheanism with anthroposophy. [5]

"Only there is, [...] a logic of thought and a logic of life. And he who does not merely delve into Goethe through a logic of thought, but who takes alive Goethe's impulses, which are full of impulses, and now tries to gain from them what can be gained after so many decades have passed over the development of humanity since Goethe's death, will believe [.... ] as he will, that through the living impulses of Goetheanism - if I may use the expression - precisely this Anthroposophy has been able to come into being through the logic of life, through experiencing what lies in Goethe, and through letting grow in a modest way what Goethe had indicated." (Rudolf Steiner) [6]

Systematics

In his main scientific works "Attempt to explain the metamorphosis of plants" (1790) and "On the Theory of Colours" (1810), Goethe developed different approaches. Accordingly, Steiner also distinguished between the knowledge of inorganic and organic nature in his "Basic Lines of an Epistemology of Goethe's World View" (1886). Following on from this, anthroposophically oriented natural scientists formulated the following "systematics" in 1980, [7] which follows the four-limbed conception of man of anthroposophy:

This system, however, was rather programmatic in character and is not generally accepted among Goetheanists.

Goethe quotes

"A phenomenon, an experiment can prove nothing; it is the link of a great chain which is only valid in the context. He who would cover a string of pearls and show only the most beautiful one by one, demanding that we should believe him that the rest are all like it, would hardly enter into the bargain." (Sprüche in Prosa 160, Maximen und Reflexionen 501.)

"No phenomenon explains itself in and of itself; only many surveyed together, methodically ordered, give at last something that could be considered theory." (Sprüche in Prosa 161, Maximen und Reflexionen 500.)

"The highest thing would be to understand that everything factual is already theory. The blueness of the sky reveals to us the fundamental law of chromatics. Only do not look for anything behind the phenomena; they themselves are the teaching." (Sprüche in Prosa 165, Maximen und Reflexionen 488.)

"There is a tender empiricism which makes itself intimately identical with the object, and thereby becomes theory proper. But this heightening of the intellectual faculty belongs to a highly educated age." (Sprüche in Prosa 167, Maximen und Reflexionen 509.)

"The opinion of the most excellent men and their example gives me hope that I am on the right path, and I wish that my friends, who sometimes ask me what my intention is in my optical endeavours, may be satisfied with this explanation. My intention is: to gather all experience in this subject, to make all experiments myself and to carry them out through their greatest diversity, by which means they are also easy to imitate and are not out of the field of vision of so many people. Then set up the sentences in which the experiences of the higher kind can be expressed, and wait to see to what extent these also rank themselves under a higher principle." (Essay: The Experiment as Mediator of Object and Subject .)

"... for nature alone becomes comprehensible when one endeavours to present the most diverse phenomena, which seem isolated, in methodical succession; since one then well learns to understand that there is no first and last, but that everything, enclosed in a living circle, instead of contradicting itself, clarifies itself and presents the most delicate relations to the inquiring mind." (Goethe, Letters. To Joseph Sebastian Grüner, Weimar, 15 March 1832. [16] [17] )

See also

Literature

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References

  1. ↑ Goethe on his scientific methodology: Der Versuch als Vermittler von Objekt und Subjekt
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Schad: Was ist Goetheanismus? On the History of the Word. In: Die Drei 5/2002, p. 36
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Schad: Was ist Goetheanismus? On the History of the Word. In: Die Drei 5/2002, II. Goetheanism in the Representations of Rudolf Steiner, Die Drei 6/2002, pp. 50-59
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Schad: Was ist Goetheanismus? On the History of the Word. In: The Three 5/2002, III. Goetheanism since Rudolf Steiner. In: Die Drei. Issue 7, 2002, pp. 54-65
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Schad: Was ist Goetheanismus? On the History of the Word. In: Die Drei 5/2002, and Andreas Suchantke: Goetheanism as the "Grounding" of Anthroposophy, Die Drei 2 and 3/2006
  6. ↑ Rudolf Steiner's lecture on 9 April 1923 in Basel, page 7 (PDF; 120 kB)
  7. ↑ Ernst-August Müller et al: Goetheanism. Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 33, p. 37f (1980), here in slightly revised form adopted with permission of the copyright holder
  8. ↑ Goethe about his scientific methods: Der Versuch als Vermittler von Objekt und Subjekt
  9. ↑ Jochen Bockemühl: Die Bildebewegungen der Pflanzen. In: Forms of appearance of the etheric. Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-7725-0401-9
  10. ↑ George Adams, Olive Whicher: The Plant in Space and Counterspace. Stuttgart 1960
  11. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: Das Verhältnis der verschiedenen naturwissenschaftlichen Gebiete zur Astronomie. GA-No. 323, 1926, ISBN 3-7274-3230-6
  12. ↑ Herrmann Poppelbaum: Tier-Wesenskunde. Dornach 1938
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Schad: Mammals and Man. Stuttgart 1971
  14. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: Of Soul Riddles. GA-No. 21, 1917
  15. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: The Key Points of the Social Question. GA No. 23, 1919, ISBN 3-7274-0230-X
  16. ↑ Aphorismen.de
  17. ↑ Letters of Goethe
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