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The Wholeness of Nature : Goethe's Way Toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature

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No praise is adequate for this book with its strong unsentimental philosophical approach tempered with a relaxed style and exceptionally clear explanations of the material. It opens up a completely new way of viewing and doing science one not easily acceptable to a rigid interpretaion as it stands today. Very broad in its scope discussing very deeply the idea of world view, it is an essential read for any scientist even applied mathematicians such as myself. Unlike other books in the same vein eg metaphysical etc, in whose domain it does not belong, there are no fantastical explanations with no grounding but rather well researched arguments in favour of an almost a Socratic perspective, refering here to Socrates's character and life rather than Plato's use of him in his arguments. Recommended for all open minded readers and those who would like to have theirs opened.

An absolutely fascinating read, at a level suitable for both professional scientists and academics but easily accessible to the layperson as well. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in holism, holistic science and the limits of science. Bortoft provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of Johan Wolfgang von Goethe's approach to science, clearly showing the contemporary relevance of his entirely different way of coming to an understanding of the natural world. He underpins this analysis by his own philosophical research on the relationship between the whole and its parts.

In our daily thinking we tend to be stuck in what Bortoft calls analytic consciousness, through which we try to understand the phenomena in our world by analysing them into parts and then building them up again from those parts. In this way, the whole becomes an entity, which stands alone, albeit constituted from its parts. Goethe's way of science, however, draws on a very different conception of the whole, as being intimately entwined with its parts, in such a way that, in a sense, the whole comes into being through the parts, while at the same time the parts come into being through the whole. We can only really understand this by experiencing it and drawing on our intuitive mode of consciousness.

Bortoft shows how Goethe dwelled in the phenomena he studied to such degree that he was able to understand these phenomena, without needing to explain them. Moreover, Bortoft does an excellent job at showing how this mode of science is objective in the exact same way as conventional science is objective, in that it is verifiable by others, but dependant on a shared way of seeing the world.

Having read many parts of the book over again, I am in awe of the wholeness of this work, in the Goethean sense, so that each section forms both a part of the whole, but at the same time contains the entire work within itself. Once read as a whole, each section brings to life again the entire work, revealing each time new aspects and helping me to think afresh, with thought-provoking ideas. Striking in all this is how Bortoft has managed to bring the entire subject to life by showing so clearly how Goethe's science comes into being.

The relevance and importance of this work will no doubt increase over the years.

I don't know when I will have the chance to sing this books praises with more details, so here I will just say the following:

This book is a masterpiece on several fronts. Here we have the best articulation yet as to why modern science must reject the healing tonic which lives in Goethe's approach. Here we have the best articulation yet of how an alternative approach to science is possible- one that is systematic and exact, yet open and participative with nature.

The methodology presented in this book is epistemologically sound, unlike the on-looker/representational epistemology that modern natural science is necessarily bound to.

This book shows us how to begin taking a step in a beautiful, true and necessary direction. more later