Goethe's History of Science

Being familiar with Goethe's Faust story, students of Western thought will not be surprised to learn that Goethe was also a scientist, philosopher and historian. This book is about the interdisciplinary activities of his mid-life (1790–1810) when he researched optics, colour theory and plant morphology, and at the same time contributed to the growing literature in the history and philosophy of science. In Goethe's writings, Karl J. Fink finds a scientist examining the junctures of nature, the boundary conditions where growth and change occur. These topics of transition also define his approach to the history of science, where the gaps between visible states challenge the historian to search for metaphors that bridge discontinuities. Fink concludes his study with Goethe's views on the possibility of a teleology of science, looking at those writings in which Goethe explores how the scientist of today projects and directs the science of tomorrow.