ABSTRACT
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s scientific approach countered both the prevailing vitalism and mechanistic ways of seeing the world which dominated the science of his time (1749–1832). His approach was of an informed holism that did not reject science but aimed to direct its path towards a more sensitive appreciation of the generative power of nature. He called this a ‘delicate empiricism’. His work in botany and osteology is described to show how morphology and sense perception (Anschauung) can tune into the being of a phenomenon as ‘in process’ and understand something of nature herself through such human engagement. Goethe’s approach could inform new ways of developing more sensitive approaches to engaging with the environment, such as through agroecology. This chapter explains the link between Goethe and Rudolf Steiner (the initiator of biodynamic agriculture) and phenomenology. Goethe’s scientific approach uses human faculties such as imagination and intuition, once they have been carefully disciplined. It acknowledges that we are inevitably intertwined with nature, so rather than trying to ignore this, we should bring our human qualities into play. We can renew Goethe’s approach by following his method, or we can chance upon it through dedication and a receptivity to nature. To demonstrate the latter, the chapter introduces the work of cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock (discoverer of the transposition of genes) who, it is suggested here, works in a Goethean way.
