Goethean Science by Rudolf Steiner.pdf

Goethean Science

By Rudolf Steiner

GA 1

In the collected edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in German, the volume

containing the German text is entitled Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche

Schriften, Einleitungen , (Vol. I in the Bibliographic Survey). It was originally

published as introductions to Goethe's Natural-Scientific Works in Kürschner's

Deutsche National Literatur , edited by Rudolf Steiner, with introductions,

footnotes, and annotations in four volumes, 1883 1897. Also translated as

Goethe the Scientist .

This translation into English was made by William Lindeman. Cover graphic

form by Rudolf Steiner (originally as a study for the book Truth and Science ).

Layout and lettering, Peter Stebbing. eText by John Roland Penner.

This e.Text edition is provided through the wonderful work

of:

The Mercury Press

Thanks to a donation from John Penner, this book has been made

available.

CONTENTS

Cover Sheet

Contents

Introduction

II:

How Goethe's Theory of Metamorphosis Arose

III:

How Goethe's Thoughts on the Development of the Animals

Arose

IV:

The Nature and Significance of Goethe's Writings on

Organic Development

Concluding Remarks on Goethe's Morphological Views

VI:

Goethe's Way of Knowledge

VII:

The Arrangement of Goethe's Natural-scientific Writings

VIII:

From Art to Science

IX:

Goethe's Epistemology

Knowing and Human Action in the Light of the Goethean

Way of Thinking

XI:

Relationship of the Goethean Way of Thinking to Other

Views

XII:

Goethe and Mathematics

XIII:

Goethe's Basic Geological Principle

XIV:

Goethe's Meteorological Conceptions

XV:

Goethe and Natural-scientific Illusionism

XVI:

Goethe as Thinker and Investigator

XVII:

Goethe Against Atomism

XVIII:

Goethe's World View in his Aphorisms in Prose Notes

Title: Goethean Science

Author: Rudolf Steiner

Publisher: Mercury Press

Translation: This translation into English was made by William

Lindeman.

Year Publ: 1988

ISBN/LCN: 0-936132-92-2

Pages: 278

Type: Paperback Size: 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches

Goethean Science

Rudolf Steiner

Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften , 1883.

Translation by: William Lindeman.

In the collected edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in German, the

volume containing the German text is entitled Goethes

Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, Einleitungen , (Vol. I in the

Bibliographic Survey). It was originally published as introductions to

Goethe's Natural-Scientific Works in Kürschner's Deutsche National

Literatur , edited by Rudolf Steiner, with introductions, footnotes, and

annotations in four volumes, 1883-1897. Also translated as Goethe the

Scientist .

This translation into English was made by William Lindeman.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Steiner, Rudolf, 1861-1925

Goethean Science

Translation of: Goethe's Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften

“Originally published as introductions to Goethe's Natural-Scientific works in

Kürschner's Deutsche National-Literatur , edited by Rudolf Steiner, with

introductions, footnotes, and annotations in four volumes, 1883-97”— T.p. verso.

1. Goethe, Johann, Wolfgang von, 1749-1832—

Knowledge—Science. I. Title.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-061734

ISBN 0-936132-92-2 (pbk.)

Cover: Graphic form by Rudolf Steiner (originally as a study for the book Truth

and Science ).

be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher, except for

brief quotations embodied in critical reviews or articles.

Goethean Science

Introduction

On August 18, 1787, Goethe wrote to Knebel from Italy: “To judge by the plants and

fish I have seen in Naples and Sicily, I would, if I were ten years younger, be very

tempted to make a trip to India, not in order to discover something new, but in

order to contemplate in my own way what has already been discovered .” In

these words is to be found the point of view from which we have to look at

Goethe's scientific works. With him it is never a matter of discovering new facts,

but rather of opening up a new point of view , of looking at nature in a particular

way. It is true that Goethe made a number of great single discoveries, such as the

intermaxillary bone, the vertebral theory of the skull in osteology, the common

identity of all plant organs with the leaf in botany, etc. But we have to regard as the

life and soul of all these individual cases the magnificent view of nature by which

they are carried; in the study of organisms we have to fix our attention above all on

a magnificent discovery that overshadows everything else: that of the organism

itself . Goethe has set forth the principle by which an organism is what it presents

itself to be; he sets forth the causes whose results appear to us in the manifestations

of life; he sets forth, in fact, everything we can ask about the manifestations of life

from a point of view concerned with principles.

From the beginning, this is the goal of all his striving with respect to the organic

natural sciences; in his pursuit of this goal, those particular discoveries arose for

him as though of themselves. He had to find them if he did not want to be hindered

in his further striving. Natural science before him — which, did not know the

essential being of life phenomena, and which simply investigated organisms as

compositions of parts, according to outer characteristics, just as one does with

inorganic things — often had, along its way, to give these particulars an incorrect

interpretation, to present them in a false light. One cannot of course see any such

error in the particulars themselves. But we will recognize this only after we have

first understood the organism, since the particulars in themselves, considered

separately, do not bear within themselves the principle that explains them. They

can be explained only by the nature of the whole, because it is the whole that gives

them being and significance. Only after Goethe had discovered precisely this

nature of the whole did these erroneous interpretations become evident to him;

they could not be reconciled with his theory of living beings; they contradicted it.

If he wanted to go further on his way, he would have to clear away such

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