The Rediscovery of Color: Goethe Versus Newton Today/Book and Plates [Paperback]

Heinrich O. Proskauer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Rudolph Steiner Pr (April 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880100885
• ISBN-13: 978-0880100885
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,356,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A practical guide to Goethe's colour investigations, August 8, 2000

By 

Frank Bierbrauer (Cardiff, Wales, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rediscovery of Color: Goethe Versus Newton Today/Book and Plates (Paperback)

The great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was also an enthusiastic amateur scientist saying that of all his work he considered his scientific work to be the most important. This is no trivial matter considering the great works of prose and poetry Goethe produced eg Faust, Erlkoenig etc etc.

Probably the most well developed of his scientific investigations is his book on colour theory which studied many aspects of the formation of colours. Proskauer in this book reviews and also extends some of Goethe's work on colour as well as allowing the reader to experience the phenomena first hand through a small prism attached to the book with special cards to serve as "light/dark" sources.

The book starts with an introduction to Goethe's work which contradicts Newton's theories such as the notion that ordinary "white" light is constructed from a combination of the colours and that the prism separates the colours already present in it. Proskauer demonstrates that the spectrum observed by the prism is in fact a construction which arises due to two distinct spectra overlapping and that a spectrum is noticed only in the presence of a light/dark boundary. Further fascinating aspects are disclosed and provide a strong argument for a scientific approach akin to Goethe's. The colour phenomenon is observed without abstraction used to construct a colour theory.

These are the good aspects of the work, however the writing is at times speculative and goes counter to Goethe's original approach to "never leaving the phenomenon". Somehow it never quite convinces but nonetheless it certainly wakes up the mind from the mechanistic slumber of ordinary science. Perhaps a deeper approach would remove some of these problems.

A good book with great potential.