Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97) by F.R. Amrine (PDF)

Description

of him in like measure within myself, that is my highest wish. This noble individual was not conscious of the fact that at that very moment the divine within him and the divine of the universe were most intimately united. So, for Goethe, the resonance with a natural rationality seems part of the genius of modern science. Einstein’s ‘cosmic religion’, which reflects Spinoza, also echoes Goethe’s remark (Ibid. , Item 575 from 1829): Man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible. Else he would give up investigating. But how far will Goethe share the devotion of these cosmic rationalists to the beautiful harmonies of mathematics, so distant from any pure and ‘direct observation’? Kepler, Spinoza, Einstein need not, and would not, rest with discovery of a pattern within, behind, as a source of, the phenomenal world, and they would not let even the most profound of descriptive generalities satisfy scientific curiosity. For his part, Goethe sought fundamental archetypes, as in his intuition of a Urpjlanze, basic to all plants, infinitely plastic. When such would be found, Goethe would be content, for (as he said to Eckermann, Feb. 18, 1829): . . . to seek something behind (the Urphaenomenon) is futile. Here is the limit. But as a rule men are not satisfied to behold an Urphaenomenon. They think there must be something beyond. They are like children who, having looked into a mirror, turn it around to see what is on the other side.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review ‘ This book will be of interest to both historians and philosophers of science …’ M. Riegner, The Quarterly Review of Biology, vol. 63, September 1988

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a book of essays contributed by numerous historans, philosophers of science and scientific researchers specially focusing on Goethe’s scientific work as well the philosophy of nature inherent in his approach to studying natural phenomena.The book is separated into three parts: I. Goethe in the history of science, II. Goethe in Scientific methodology and Ontology and III. The contemporary use of Goethe’s approach.Each section has contributions which are deep analytical studies in their area, recapitulations of Goethe’s stance and in some instances a remarkably insightful and philosophically/spiritually deep comprehension of the scale of Goethe’s aim in science which explains the degree to which he himself considered his scientific work as more important than his artistic achievements.As an example consider (not all):Jeffrey Barnouw: a study on Helmholtz’s comments on Goethe’s work.Douglas E. Miller: Goethe’s colour science and its translation from the German into English.Carl Friederich von Weizsaecker: a very deep study of Goethe’s concept of metamorphosis.Dennis L. Sepper: Sepper’s superb, in depth, study of both Newton’s Optics and The Farbenlehre which led to the book published by CUP.Arthur G. Zajonc: The comprehension required in order to know what Goethe meant when saying that “the phenomenon is already the theory”.Ronald H. Brady: The understanding of both form and cause in Goethe’s phenomenology.Frederick Amrine: A study of the contemporary work of Jochen Bockemuehl in plant metamorphosis.and finally a postscript summarising the individual contributions and their overall standing regarding the current view of Goethe’s scientific contribution.This is a must book for anyone wanting to not only get some understanding of Goethe’s contribution to science, the philosophy of science but of the spirit of science as well. Ever since reading the superb book “The Wholeness of Nature” by Henri Bortoft I have attempted to purchase a copy of this text which unfortunately has been much too expensive. Luckily I obtained one second hand. It has been worth it. Along with the aforementioned book by Bortoft, Portmann’s work on “Animal Forms and Patterns” and Jack Turner’s “Abstract Wild” it becomes a member of essential items in my library.

⭐

Keywords

Free Download Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97) in PDF format
Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97) PDF Free Download
Download Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97) 1987 PDF Free
Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97) 1987 PDF Free Download
Download Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97) PDF
Free Download Ebook Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 97)