Goethe's Philosophy of Science: Modern Resonances

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

GOETHE'S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE: MODERN RESONANCES ALFRED I. TAUBER* There are serious stirrings to reconsider again a holistic orientation in biomedicine. If we seek to examine the intellectual roots of such a philosophy, it is of interest to consider the origins of holistic science in the Romantic period. There are rich examples of scientists who sought to integrate all experience under Nature's order, arbitrated, whether in science or letters, by the individual, who perceived or imagined a holistic universe, where science and poetry were "complementary ways of seeing" [I]. One of the major architects of this vision was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who, as poet and scientist [2], typifies a vision still operative in the Victorian period, but which was largely eclipsed by the nineteenth century's end. Goethe did not fall prey to the issue of vitalism , although he was strongly influenced by the ideological temper of the time [3]. He is of particular interest, however, for his holistic orientation as a theorist of science, and we might well profit from examining his philosophy in the context of both his time and our own. In re-examining Goethe's own philosophy, we find the seeds of a scientific orientation that regards sole reliance on reductionism with skepticism, and that seeks a more comprehensive strategy for biomedicine. Goethe's approach was as controversial in the nineteenth century as it would generally be regarded today, but a detailed reconstruction of his thinking reveals important insight and relevance to modern problems in the practice and philosophy of science. Although Goethe's scientific interests date from his university days, his serious efforts were initiated as a result of his famous trip to Italy (from 1786 to 1788), which represented a crucial personal watershed, having impact on his creative development, both artistically and scientifically [4, 5]. The work that closely followed, both in morphology (Meta- *Departments of Medicine and Pathology, Boston University School of Medicine, 80 East Concord Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02118.© 1993 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 003 1-5982/93/3602-0800$0 1 .00 244 Alfred I. Tauber ¦ Goethe's Philosophy morphosis of Plants (1790) [6]) and in optics (beginning with "Contributions to Optics" (1791) and leading to A Theory of Colors (1810) [7]) exhibited similar themes and purpose. Whether in biological or physical science, Goethe sought a holistic continuity of nature through its inorganic and organic dimensions. That integrated experience of nature was typically Romantic, in that its inquiry was not limited to establishing the workings of nature but had a more grandiose mission. Reacting against a mechanistically based science, Goethe attempted to unify varied experience by an idealized and comprehensive appreciation of nature . Simply to reduce phenomena to abstract formulae, for instance to treat light as simply so much mathematical modeling and manipulation, was an ideological issue in which he was rigorously embattled [2, 8-10]. He certainly did not object to abstraction per se, as evidenced by his idealization of archetypes, but he rejected a science that would not encompass a personalized relation to the natural phenomenon. The Primal Plant The case of Goethe's botanical studies in Italy is the first of two succinct case studies to illustrate Goethe's scientific philosophy. In 1786, Goethe left Weimar as impulsively as he had arrived eleven years earlier. His botanical and anatomic investigations (e.g., he demonstrated by homological comparison the intermaxillary bone in humans [H]) were essentially self-taught, and he had become highly knowledgeable in Linnaean classification. In Italy, Goethe focused on the rich vegetation, and in his diary, amidst exuberant descriptions of the beauty in which he was enveloped (what he called "a new vision of grace" [4]), he alludes to the inspiration for his studies: "I am on the way to establishing important new relations and discovering the manner in which Nature, with incomparable power, develops the greatest complexity from the simple" [4]. In "paradise" he clearly formulated his quest: "Among this multitude might I not discover the Primal Plant? There certainly must be one. Otherwise, how could I recognize that this or that form was a plant if all were not built upon the same basic model?" [4] He...