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The word Goetheanism was first used by the Swedish diplomat [[w:Carl Gustaf von Brinkman|Carl Gustaf von Brinkman]] (1764 - 1847) in a letter to Goethe in 1803 to characterise his worldview as a whole. Through [[Rudolf Steiner]], the first editor of Goethe's writings on [[natural science]]s, including his estate {{LZ||Goethe 1891-1896}}, the term was increasingly used from 1915 onwards for the method underlying Goethe's studies of nature, without limiting it to this alone. In fact, the Goethean method can be fruitfully applied in practically all areas of life.  
The word Goetheanism was first used by the Swedish diplomat [[w:Carl Gustaf von Brinkman|Carl Gustaf von Brinkman]] (1764 - 1847) in a letter to Goethe in 1803 to characterise his worldview as a whole. Through [[Rudolf Steiner]], the first editor of Goethe's writings on [[natural science]]s, including his estate {{LZ||Goethe 1891-1896}}, the term was increasingly used from 1915 onwards for the method underlying Goethe's studies of nature, without limiting it to this alone. In fact, the Goethean method can be fruitfully applied in practically all areas of life.  
== Epistemological foundations ==
Goethe himself did not give a coherent epistemological justification of his research method. This was first formulated in detail and systematically by [[Rudolf Steiner]] in his «[[Introductions to Goethe's Writings on Natural Science]]» (1884 - 1897) and in his fundamental work «[[The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception]]». Fruitful thoughts for understanding the Goethean method can also be found, despite the predominantly philosophical rather than scientific orientation, in [[w:Edmund Husserl|Edmund Husserl]]'s phenomenology.
{{GZ|In our cultural history, one can sometimes see the downright clash between that which is perishing, that which wants to live in dead, abstract ideas and deludes itself that they are something significant, and that which wants to seize the human germ, which alone is seminal. I have often drawn attention to the significant conversation that Goethe had with Schiller when they were both at a meeting of the Natural Research Society in Jena, where the botanist Batsch spoke about plants, and where Schiller said to Goethe as he was leaving: "The botanical view is something that fragments everything and drives out what unites us. - Goethe then drew his plant metamorphosis with a few characteristic strokes in front of Schiller. Schiller said: "But that is not an experience, that is an idea. - Schiller could not rise to the idea of the future-oriented human being, that he could then also find the future-oriented outside in the world, namely the supersensible. Therefore he replied to Goethe: "That is not experience, not observation, that is an idea. - Goethe then said: "Then I see my ideas with my eyes. - For him, what he recorded was something he also saw, something that was just as real to him as something seen with the physical senses. There stood the one who, like Schiller, could not look up to the supersensible, but who had only the dead abstract idea in mind, opposite Goethe, who wanted to extract from what he recognised in nature that which is the seminal, the imperishable in man, to whom all that is transient is only a parable, which he wanted to connect with the imperishable, and who was therefore not understood, because he looked at something supersensible, imperishable, as at something sensual. Therefore, the necessary requirement for our time must be a Goetheanism that is further developed, further educated in its field. Only then will it become clear that such things as the individual denominations, even the Mosaic, especially the Catholic, are only the continuations of the old, no longer meant to be, and thus project into the development like something withering away, thus only establishing itself through external power, and how next to this old, projecting thing there is planted that which from the outset only wants to take the transient with it for the future. That which expresses itself in such a way, that it only wants to take the transient with it, is Americanism. This is the basis of the relationship between Americanism and Jesuitism that I spoke of last time.
Goetheanism stands in opposition to all these things. Again, I don't mean something dogmatically fixed, but names must be used for something that goes far beyond the name. I do not understand Goetheanism to mean what Goethe thought up to 1832, but rather something that can perhaps only be thought in the sense of Goethe in the next millennium, something that can be developed from Goethean perception, from Goethean imagination and feeling. It is to this that it is precisely in that which has any connection with Goetheanism that everything aboriginal sees its actual enemy.|181|422}}
[[w:Friedrich Schiller|Friedrich Schiller]] characterised Goethe's holistically oriented way of [[thinking]] in his famous letter of 23 August 1794 as follows:
{{LZ|For a long time now, although from quite a distance, I have watched the course of your mind, and have noticed with ever renewed admiration the path you have marked out for yourself. You seek what is necessary in nature, but you seek it by the most difficult path, from which every weaker force will beware. You take the whole of nature together in order to get light on the individual; in the totality of its modes of appearance you seek the explanatory ground for the individual. From the simple organisation you ascend, step by step, to the more intricate, in order finally to build the most intricate of all, man, genetically out of the materials of the whole natural edifice. By recreating him, as it were, from nature, you seek to penetrate her hidden technique. A great and truly heroic idea, which sufficiently shows how much your spirit holds the rich whole of its ideas together in a beautiful unity. You can never have hoped that your life would reach such a goal, but to even embark on such a path is worth more than to end any other ...|[[Friedrich Schiller]], Letter to Goethe, 23 August 1794 [https://www.friedrich-schiller-archiv.de/briefwechsel-von-schiller-und-goethe/1794/4-an-goethe-23-august-1794/ online]}}


== Literature ==
== Literature ==

Latest revision as of 13:37, 30 July 2021

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Oil painting by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1828

Goetheanism is a holistic, purely phenomenological general scientific methodology based on primarily direct qualitative experiences, which, unlike conventional scientific procedures, largely refrains from the use of artificial measuring instruments and quantitative evaluations and is free of speculative elements, hypotheses and models in its objectives. It was founded by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832). His research method is by no means exhausted in the mere registration and description of phenomena, as positivism had demanded. Through "Anschauende Urteilskraft", i.e. through thinking that does not separate itself from the phenomena, they should reveal their ideal connection, their lawful connection, and thereby make their actual essence accessible to intellectual perception. Only in this way is the complete phenomenon given as it exists in reality per se. In this sense, Goethe's method may also be regarded as a compassionate empiricism that grasps not only the outside, but above all the inner essence.

The word Goetheanism was first used by the Swedish diplomat Carl Gustaf von Brinkman (1764 - 1847) in a letter to Goethe in 1803 to characterise his worldview as a whole. Through Rudolf Steiner, the first editor of Goethe's writings on natural sciences, including his estate (Lit.: Goethe 1891-1896), the term was increasingly used from 1915 onwards for the method underlying Goethe's studies of nature, without limiting it to this alone. In fact, the Goethean method can be fruitfully applied in practically all areas of life.

Epistemological foundations

Goethe himself did not give a coherent epistemological justification of his research method. This was first formulated in detail and systematically by Rudolf Steiner in his «Introductions to Goethe's Writings on Natural Science» (1884 - 1897) and in his fundamental work «The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception». Fruitful thoughts for understanding the Goethean method can also be found, despite the predominantly philosophical rather than scientific orientation, in Edmund Husserl's phenomenology.

„In our cultural history, one can sometimes see the downright clash between that which is perishing, that which wants to live in dead, abstract ideas and deludes itself that they are something significant, and that which wants to seize the human germ, which alone is seminal. I have often drawn attention to the significant conversation that Goethe had with Schiller when they were both at a meeting of the Natural Research Society in Jena, where the botanist Batsch spoke about plants, and where Schiller said to Goethe as he was leaving: "The botanical view is something that fragments everything and drives out what unites us. - Goethe then drew his plant metamorphosis with a few characteristic strokes in front of Schiller. Schiller said: "But that is not an experience, that is an idea. - Schiller could not rise to the idea of the future-oriented human being, that he could then also find the future-oriented outside in the world, namely the supersensible. Therefore he replied to Goethe: "That is not experience, not observation, that is an idea. - Goethe then said: "Then I see my ideas with my eyes. - For him, what he recorded was something he also saw, something that was just as real to him as something seen with the physical senses. There stood the one who, like Schiller, could not look up to the supersensible, but who had only the dead abstract idea in mind, opposite Goethe, who wanted to extract from what he recognised in nature that which is the seminal, the imperishable in man, to whom all that is transient is only a parable, which he wanted to connect with the imperishable, and who was therefore not understood, because he looked at something supersensible, imperishable, as at something sensual. Therefore, the necessary requirement for our time must be a Goetheanism that is further developed, further educated in its field. Only then will it become clear that such things as the individual denominations, even the Mosaic, especially the Catholic, are only the continuations of the old, no longer meant to be, and thus project into the development like something withering away, thus only establishing itself through external power, and how next to this old, projecting thing there is planted that which from the outset only wants to take the transient with it for the future. That which expresses itself in such a way, that it only wants to take the transient with it, is Americanism. This is the basis of the relationship between Americanism and Jesuitism that I spoke of last time.

Goetheanism stands in opposition to all these things. Again, I don't mean something dogmatically fixed, but names must be used for something that goes far beyond the name. I do not understand Goetheanism to mean what Goethe thought up to 1832, but rather something that can perhaps only be thought in the sense of Goethe in the next millennium, something that can be developed from Goethean perception, from Goethean imagination and feeling. It is to this that it is precisely in that which has any connection with Goetheanism that everything aboriginal sees its actual enemy.“ (Lit.:GA 181, p. 422)

Friedrich Schiller characterised Goethe's holistically oriented way of thinking in his famous letter of 23 August 1794 as follows:

„For a long time now, although from quite a distance, I have watched the course of your mind, and have noticed with ever renewed admiration the path you have marked out for yourself. You seek what is necessary in nature, but you seek it by the most difficult path, from which every weaker force will beware. You take the whole of nature together in order to get light on the individual; in the totality of its modes of appearance you seek the explanatory ground for the individual. From the simple organisation you ascend, step by step, to the more intricate, in order finally to build the most intricate of all, man, genetically out of the materials of the whole natural edifice. By recreating him, as it were, from nature, you seek to penetrate her hidden technique. A great and truly heroic idea, which sufficiently shows how much your spirit holds the rich whole of its ideas together in a beautiful unity. You can never have hoped that your life would reach such a goal, but to even embark on such a path is worth more than to end any other ...“ (Lit.: Friedrich Schiller, Letter to Goethe, 23 August 1794 online)

Literature

Natural sciences
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1891-1896): Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften. Sophien-Ausgabe, Weimar
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1883-1897): Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften. Hrsg. Joseph Kürschner, Bd. 114 - 117, 1883-1897, Fotomechanischer Nachdruck Dornach 1982, ISBN 3-7274-5210-2 (Reihe, 5 Bände)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1947 - 2011 / III.Abt.: 2014 - ): Goethe. Die Schriften zur Naturwissenschaft, Leopoldina-Ausgabe, erste vollständige und historisch-kritische Ausgabe mit 18 Kommentarbänden, herausgegeben von Dorothea Kuhn, Wolf von Engelhardt und Irmgard Müller. Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger Weimar, ISBN: 978-3-7400-0024-0 (Gesamtwerk) Leopoldina.org ; (Die letzten Editionen der Münchener und der Frankfurter Ausgabe haben die in der Leopoldina-Ausgabe edierten Texte übernommen. Pressemitteilung zur Leopoldina-Ausgabe), [ebenso beruht die Hamburger Ausgabe auf der Editionsarbeit der Leopoldina]; (Es wurde ein "Text hergestellt, der bei manchen Aufsätzen zum ersten Mal die echte Goethesche Fassung ohne die Änderungen, Umstellungen, Streichungen von Eckermann, Riemer oder anderen Herausgebern des 19. Jahrhunderts darbietet." (Aus Beschreibung des Buchhandels [1]))
  • Rudolf Magnus: Goethe als Naturforscher, Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig 1906; eBook Verlag ModerneZeiten 2012 ASIN B006WSK1F8; archive.org
  • Reiner Penter: Goethes naturwissenschaftliche Methode - Zur Einheit von Natur und Forscher academia.edu
  • Renatus Ziegler: Geist und Buchstabe. Rudolf Steiner als Herausgeber von Goethes naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften, Rudolf-Steiner-Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-7274-5334-2, Inhaltsangabe (erscheint Mai 2018)
  • Adams, G. und O. Whicher (1960): Die Pflanze in Raum und Gegenraum. Stuttgart 1960
  • Amrine, Frederick / Zucker, Francis J. / Wheeler, H. (Eds.): Goethe and the Sciences: A Reappraisal, Springer Netherlands, 1987, ISBN 978-90-277-2400-7, Inhalt
  • Bockemühl, Jochen: Die Bildebewegungen der Pflanzen. In: Erscheinungsformen des Ätherischen, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-7725-0401-9
  • Bockemühl, Jochen: Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Methode unter dem Aspekt der Verantwortungsbildung. Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 38 1983, S. 50-52
  • Bockemühl, Jochen: Die Fruchtbarkeit von Goethes Wissenschaftsansatz in der Gegenwart. Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 61 1994, S. 52-69
  • Bortoft, Henri: Goethes naturwissenschaftliche Methode. Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-7725-1544-4
  • Dietz, Karl-Martin / Messmer, Barbara: Grenzen erweitern – Wirklichkeit erfahren. Perspektiven anthroposophischer Forschung, Freies Geistesleben, 1998, ISBN 3-7725-1639-4, Inhalt
  • Göbel, Thomas: Erfahrung mit Idee durchtränken. Goethes naturwissenschaftliche Arbeitsmethode, in Die Drei, 1982 H.2, S. 69-78, (auch abgedruckt in: Göbel, Thomas: Natur und Kunst, S. 13 - 24, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-7725-1748-X)
  • Heusser, Peter (Hrsg.): Goethes Beitrag zur Erneuerung der Naturwissenschaften. Das Buch zur gleichnamigen Ringvorlesung an der Universität Bern. Bern Stuttgart Wien 2000, ISBN 3-258-06083-5
  • Kühl, J.: Goethes Farbenlehre und die moderne Physik. In P. Heusser (Hrsg.): Goethes Beitrag zur Erneuerung der Naturwissenschaften. Bern Stuttgart Wien 2000, ISBN 3-258-06083-5
  • Ernst-Michael Kranich: Goetheanismus – seine Methode und Bedeutung in der Wissenschaft des Lebendigen. Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 86, 2007, S. 31-45, Rezension Peer Schilperoord
  • Poppelbaum, H.: Tier-Wesenskunde. Dornach 1954 (1938)
  • Robbins, Brent Dean (ed.): Goethe's Delicate Empiricism, Janus Head 8/1, Sommer 2005, (Essays zu Goethe) open access
  • Herbert Witzenmann: Goethes universalästhetischer Impuls, Gideon-Spicker-Verlag 1988, ISBN 3857041552
  • Wolfgang Schad: Säugetiere und Mensch. Stuttgart 1971
  • Wolfgang Schad: Die Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung im Entwurf Goethes. Tycho de Brahe-Jahrbuch für Goetheanismus 1986, S. 9-30, ISBN 3-926347-00-7
  • Wolfgang Schad: Der Goetheanistische Forschungsansatz und seine Anwendung auf die ökologische Problematik des Waldsterbens. In G. R. Schnell (Hrsg.): Waldsterben, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7725-0549-X
  • Wolfgang Schad: Alles ist Blatt. Tycho de Brahe-Jahrbuch für Goetheanismus 1999, S. 9-33, ISBN 3-926347-21-X
  • Wolfgang Schad: Was ist Goetheanismus? Tycho de Brahe-Jahrbuch für Goetheanismus 2001, S. 23-66, ISBN 3-926347-23-6 (englische Version: PDF)
  • Schad, Albrecht: Der goetheanistische Zugang zum Lebendigen, in: Wirklichkeit und Idee. Goethes Weltzugang und der geistige Hintergrund des Nordens, hrsg. von Hartwig Schiller, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7725-2196-6, S. 95 -122
  • Schieren, Jost: Anschauende Urteilskraft. Die philosophischen und methodischen Grundlagen von Goethes naturwissenschaftlichem Erkennen. Düsseldorf/Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-930450-27-5.
  • Schilperoord, Peer: Anschauende Urteilskraft, 2008, in: Elemente der Naturwissenschaft Nr. 89, 2008, S. 42 - 59 PDF
  • Seamon, David / Arthur Zajonc (Eds.): Goethe's Way of Science. A Phenomenology of Nature, Suny Press 1998, Inhalt
  • Suchantke, Andreas: Metamorphose. Kunstgriff der Evolution. Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7725-1784-6.
  • Suchantke, Andreas: Goetheanismus als „Erdung“ der Anthroposophie. In: Die Drei. Heft 2 und 3, 2006
  • Rudolf Steiner: Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, GA 1 (1962) English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
  • Rudolf Steiner: Grundlinien einer Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung. Dornach 1984, GA 2, ISBN 3-7274-6290-6 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
  • Rudolf Steiner: Goethes Weltanschauung. Dornach 1985, GA 6 (1897), ISBN 3-7274-6250-7 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
  • Rudolf Steiner: Von Seelenrätseln, GA 21 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
  • Rudolf Steiner: Mysterienwahrheiten und Weihnachtsimpulse, GA 180 (1966) English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
  • Rudolf Steiner: Erdensterben und Weltenleben. Anthroposophische Lebensgaben. Bewußtseins-Notwendigkeiten für Gegenwart und Zukunft, GA 181 (1991), ISBN 3-7274-1810-9 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
  • Rudolf Steiner: Das Verhältnis der verschiedenen naturwissenschaftlichen Gebiete zur Astronomie, GA 323, ISBN 3-7274-3230-6 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
Cultural and social sciences
  • Dietz, Karl-Martin / Messmer, Barbara: Grenzen erweitern – Wirklichkeit erfahren. Perspektiven anthroposophischer Forschung, Freies Geistesleben, 1998, ISBN 3-7725-1639-4, Inhalt
  • Henningfeld, Iris: Goethes Urphänomen. Ein phänomenologischer Beitrag zu einem erweiterten Erfahrungsbegriff, in: Die Drei, Heft 1/2015, S. 37-47, Inhaltsangabe
  • Maatsch, Jonas (HG): Morphologie und Moderne : Goethes "anschauliches Denken" in den Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften seit 1800, Berlin ; Boston, Mass. : De Gruyter 2014, Inhaltsverzeichnis: PDF, ISBN 978-3-11-037212-0
  • Robbins, Brent Dean (ed.): Goethe's Delicate Empiricism, Janus Head 8/1, Sommer 2005, (Essays zu Goethe) open access
  • Hans Georg Schweppenhäuser: Naturwissenschaft und Sozialwissenschaft - ihre Methoden und Erkenntnisgrundlagen, in: Schweppenhäuser, Hans Georg: Das soziale Rätsel in den Wandlungen der Individuen und der Gesellschaften der Neuzeit, Vlg. am Goetheanum, Dornach 1985, überarbeitet, gekürzt und mit Quellenangaben versehen von Manfred Kannenberg-Rentschler, ISBN 3-7235-0363-2, Inhalt, S. 74-123
  • Rudolf Steiner: Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage. GA-Nr. 23, Dornach 1976, ISBN 3-7274-0230-X
  • Zimmermann, Heinz: Wie kann der Goetheanismus die Kollegiumsarbeit befruchten?, in: Wirklichkeit und Idee. Goethes Weltzugang und der geistige Hintergrund des Nordens, hrsg. von Hartwig Schiller, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7725-2196-6, S. 331-346
Early Goetheanists
  • Renate Riemeck: Beispiele goetheanistischen Denkens. Der Mensch als geistiges Wesen, Studienmaterial, hrsg. aus der Arbeit der Humanus-Stiftung Basel, Verlag die Pforte, Basel 1974, PDF

Gemäß der im Urachhaus-Verlag 1980-83 erschienenen Reihe "Schriften des frühen Goetheanismus" sind u. a. folgende Autoren bzw. Werke zum Goetheanismus zu rechnen:

  • Joseph Ennemoser (1787 - 1854): Untersuchung über den Ursprung und das Wesen der menschlichen Seele
  • Karl Ernst von Baer (1792 - 1876): Entwicklung und Zielstrebigkeit in der Natur
  • Wilhelm Heinrich Preuß (1843 - 1909): Geist und Stoff. Erläuterungen des Verhältnisses zwischen Welt und Mensch nach dem Zeugnis der Organismen archive.org
  • Johann Carl Passavant (1787 - 1861): Von der Freiheit des Willens, und andere Schriften
  • Ernst Freiherr von Feuchtersleben (1806 - 1849): Zur Diätetik der Seele
  • Karl Snell (1806 - 1886): Schöpfung des Menschen
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.