Goethean Science

[INT]

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Epistemology

noun

1. the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.

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Goethean Science, what does that have to do with architecture and spatial design? Well, it is an interesting way of observing and understanding nature. Which plays a big role in the way we design today. His method helps us to explore and participate in the world we live in by having a conversation with natural phenomena. You have to slow down to understand and take everything in depth.

"Goethean science developed Goethe’s method by expanding it to a participatory process that engages communities of practitioners through cooperative research and consensus. Furthermore it aims to develop applications of Goethean methodology to improve humanity’s understanding of and our relationship with Nature. Goethean science could become an important catalyst in the emergence of a holistic and participatory worldview, which aims for appropriate participation in natural processes — the prerequisite for a sustainable society." (Wahl, 2019)

A way to do so could be to sit down for 5 minutes and observe a plant or a leaf. Think about what the plant might want to show you. There is an artistic approach to it:

"Goethe engaged with science out of the same deep empathy for and curiosity in nature that drove him to express nature’s creativity as a writer and an artist. He was doubtful as to whether conventional scientific methodology should be accepted as the only and exclusive approach to gaining meaningful knowledge and insights about nature. While recognizing the importance and power of the measuring, quantifying, analytical and purely rational focus of his contemporaries in their scientific studies, Goethe followed his intuition and relied on his own, direct experience of the natural world as a source for his scientific insights.

In doing so, he developed a Goethean way of science that uses rigorous attention to direct experience, empathy, intuition and imagination as a path towards meaningful insights into nature’s creative process. This artist’s approach to science allows for a more appreciative, qualitative, meaningful and participatory engagement with nature. A similar relationship to nature can, to some extent, be experienced during any attempt at expressing natural detail and beauty through art, poetry or any other form of creative expression.

Through exploring their participatory relationship with the world, artists are able to express this dynamic and interconnected process in their artistic gestures, portraying the creative essence of Nature momentarily in their own creative expression." (Wahl, 2019)

The evolutionary biologist Margaret Colquhoun cofounded the School of Life Science, a Goethean science research institute. "Colquhoun teaches the Goethean approach in four stages: 1) exact sense perception; 2) exact sensorial fantasy; 3) seeing is beholding, and 4) being one with the object (Brook, 1998, p.53)." (Wahl, 2019)

Stage 1:

This is a stage where you can start to draw the shapes and all the observations of your chosen natural phenomena. This will take us from " “seeing roses” to seeing “a particular rose” mode of perception" (Wahl, 2019). I understand this as we should see the individual thing and all its unique shapes or functions as an individual and not a part of the rest of the species.

Stage 2:

"We no longer “see the thing in an objective frozen present” and begin to see movement and transition, which makes us aware of the “flowing processes” and stops us from “freezing them with the solid nature of the exact sense perception” (Brook, 1998, p.55).

As we enter into this process-oriented and dynamic way of seeing, we imaginatively perceive the form of the phenomenon as an expression of the process of its own transformation, moving through its history to its present and into its future." (Wahl, 2019)

This allows us to see the phenomena differently than in stage one, we can take what we observed and unfold it, and it could lead us in different directions.

"Brook explains: “the second stage could be seen as a training of the imaginative faculty in two directions: Firstly to free up the imagination and then to constrain it within the realms of what is possible for the phenomenon being studied” (Brook, 1998, p.55–56)." (Wahl, 2019)

Stage 3:

This is the stage where you can use the different types of art forms by using observation and unfolding from stages 1 and 2. Allow the phenomena to express itself through you (the observer), it will express itself thanks to your "human capacity for conscious awareness." (Wahl, 2019)

" “To experience the being of a phenomenon requires a human gesture of ‘self-dissipation’. is effort is a holding back of our own activity — a form of receptive attentiveness that offers the phenomenon a chance to express its own gesture. The result of this effort may be an inspirational flash or Aha!” (Brook, 1998, p.56)." (Wahl, 2019)

Stage 4:

At this stage we look at lending the phenomena the human capacity, it flows directly in from stage 3. "Isis Brook suggests that the four stages could also be summarized as: perception, imagination, inspiration and intuition. She acknowledges that since each stage builds on the experiences the observer had in the previous stages, each stage is harder to articulate to somebody who has not engaged in this methodology actively before and experienced the various stages." (Wahl, 2019)

"When form is understood as an expression of process, all form is seen as intrinsically meaningful since it communicates to the attentive observer where it comes from, where it is going, and how it relates to other forms and processes." (Wahl, 2019) This process of forms is very individual and it can take you in very different directions and see how it communicates differently with the wider environment around you. You can see how the changes in its path happen and understand it in a different way.

References:

Wahl, D. C. (2019, April 30). “Zarte Empirie”: Goethean Science as a Way of Knowing. Medium. https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/zarte-empirie-goethean-science-as-a-way-of-knowing-e1ab7ad63f46