AbstractWhile popularly known for his works of literature and poetry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe viewed his lesser-known scientific pieces as his most enduring achievement. I will argue that Goethe’s unique scientific methodology is informed by a metaphysical commitment to a form of Platonism and that Goethe provides an intriguing alternative paradigm that unifies science, philosophy, theology, and ethics. I begin by demonstrating how Goethe’s concept of the Urphänomen offers a Platonic conception of natural beings. I then briefly outline how this alternative scientific approach ultimately derives from his Platonic commitments. Next, I demonstrate the ethical and spiritual implications of Goethean science, establishing that Goethe’s approach bridges the divide between our scientific endeavors and spiritual formation. There is, then, a continued relevance for Goethe in conversations regarding ecological ethics and our perception of nature.
287). Each developmental stage is not simply a progression toward the archetype but also a novel expression of it. In other words, previous stages are not made irrelevant by later stages; the form manifests only when the full continuity of the motion is grasped. Hence, the
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7 of 14 Religions 2024, 15, 355 archetypal form of the creature will appear to the observer as a time-form which can unify the differences of time in the same manner spatial forms unify the distinctions of space (Brady 1987, p. 286). In this way, a flicker of the universal is present in every particular, gleaming through it as a meaning does through symbol.16
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Thus, Goethes symbolical view of nature allowed the ideal to become real without fully extricating it from the world of matter. Each particular manifestation becomes greater than itself in its capacity to represent the various other stages of development within its own expression. The part, then, can symbolize the whole in that the whole is in the part. Each sensible appearance of a given thing is merely an infinitesimally partial sign of its complete underlying reality. In a word, the potentiality of life overflows its actuality (Brady 1998, p. 106). Yet, simultaneously, the meaning of the whole is present in every part. An analogy would be the power of symbols and gestures to convey meaning. Each expresses the attitude and thoughts of a person, yet the meaning itself is not given in the individual words, letters, and actions. Rather, meaning arises from the whole yet reveals itself through the use of symbolic figures and movements.
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As such, the meaning of the individual letters and gestures cannot be understood outside of their given context. In the same way, no individual manifestation is wholly understood unless seen within the light of its meaningful contextnamely, its place within the Urphnomen. Once grasped, the observer moves beyond the sensory and into the ideal, which is, for Goethe, the divine idea that structures reality, thought, and speech (Zajonc 1987, p. 235). Dividing between understanding, which is the cognitive faculty of rational and standard scientific thinking, and reason, which is the intuitive perception that arrives at the Urphnomen, Goethe writes, The understanding will not reach her; man must be capable of elevating himself to the highest Reason, to come into contact with the Divinity, which manifests itself in the primitive phenomena, which dwells behind them, and from which they proceed. The Divinity works in the living, not in the dead; in the becoming and changing, not in the become a
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