Goethe, Steiner, and the Evolution of Science
Publication information:
Abstract
From the perspective of my work as a practitioner in education and research in the life sciences, I discuss key features of a Goethe-Steinerian approach to scientific inquiry. I focus on essential elements of this participatory way of knowing that finds expression in Goethe’s own practice of science and that Steiner elucidates and develops further in his own work. As a phenomenological practice, the intent is to let phenomena illuminate phenomena to reveal their connections. This only becomes possible when a careful study of phenomena is wedded with a heightened awareness of thinking and with its ongoing transformation. Instead of imposing conceptual frameworks, thinking can become ever more flexible by participating in the diverse phenomena of a field of study, giving keen attention to what this interaction reveals. Ultimately, thinking can develop into a spiritual organ to perceive the relations that give phenomena their meaning. The practice is based on an expanded understanding of experience that encompasses phenomena given to the senses and to the mind, and it entails a radical commitment to experience in all inquiry. From this perspective, the shortcomings of purported theoretical and mechanistic “explanations” in science become clear and can be articulated. At the same time, the expanded view of phenomena and experience, which is mainly implicit in Goethe and made explicit by Steiner, opens up an understanding of the relation of Goethe’s natural science to what Steiner developed as spiritual science. Steiner went beyond Goethe’s natural science in developing his spiritual science, while recognizing the deep concordance between their approaches and the importance of Goethean natural science into the future.
Presenter Biography
Jon McAlice has worked in the international Waldorf schools movement for many years as a teacher and lecturer. He has been involved in teacher training institutes throughout Europe and in the United States, focusing primarily on questions of human development and the psychology of learning. For many years a fellow at the Goetheanum in Switzerland, he headed up research projects on curricular development, collegial leadership, and the role of direct experience in the learning process. In 2008, Jon co-founded the Center for Contextual Studies, a decentralized research collaborative formed to engage in and support action-based research that can lead beyond the current boundaries of conventional knowledge to a quality of understanding that enables human consciousness to participate fully in the spiritual reality of our world. He is the author of numerous articles and two books. Between 2008 and 2012 he was a core faculty member in The Nature Institute’s summer intensives for science teachers. He helped develop the Institute’s Foundation Course, “Encountering Nature and the Nature of Things,” which began in 2018. Jon joined the staff as Senior Researcher and Educator in 2020.