Goethe's Scientific Ideas and the Advancement of Experimental Science since his Death in 1832

摘要

This paper looks at Goethe's scientific theories and the aspects that caused them to have so little influence on experimental science in the nineteenth century. Essentially these were that he believed in nature as a unity that should not be interfered with but observed; that hypotheses would lead to finding only what one was looking for; and that the mathematical model is an inadequate way of explaining the world — ideas that went against the basic tenets of empirical science, so that despite his own discoveries, he was respected only as a poet. The twentieth century has come to value his holistic approach to nature and his historical approach to notions of truth.