Goethe and Steiner, our first holistic thinkers
Chapter 9 serializing of Growing Sustainable Children; and, Schools Worthy of Our Affection.
This is my best guess how, in the next 100 years, whole-child K-12 schooling can evolve worldwide.
Goethe was a natural holistic thinker, from birth, it would seem. He coined a word for his kind of thinking, Ganzheitsdenken — thinking your way into the wholeness of things …
Goethe stressed experimenters had to start with actual Nature phenomenon. Divorcing oneself from participation in Nature was both an error and an impossibility. This was highly contrary to the method of 1800s “Natural Science.”
As a generalization, in the modern Western sense, Goethe was one of the first holistic thinkers to emerge ~ (significantly revised for clarity and completeness from “What is Goethean Science?” by David Eyes) http://www.solidmentalgrace.com/jcms/anthroposophy-and-goethean/35-general-anthroposophic-and-goethean/45-goethean-science.html
The Varieties of Perceptual Experience — Goethe’s holistic thinking is reflected in his searching for not just one way of seeing a particular object, but his willingness to attempt to perceive a natural phenomena from many different perceptual angles, thru multiple sensory channels. … modes of observation, and ways of conceiving things … Together, these different modes of observation insure balance, do justice to the plurality, depth, richness, and complexity of Nature, and give rise to a wholeness in perception which would otherwise be missed ~ Reduced, revised from Hyatt Carter at http://hycadventures.com/page14.php
Outside of mystics, Goethe appears to be the first Western person familiar with Western science to grasp:
1) A conception of the whole human being was worth something, was worth conjuring with, even before knowing what all the components were yet; and
2) Left-brain-only Natural Science in the 1700s was off track, was taking people too deeply into mere materiality and mere mentality, mere mental experiments. How? It exclusively exercised one-sided thinking. This was not necessary, because
3) Within the wholeness of the human being, a more natural, two-sided method of experimenting was already inherent; by which, individuals can explore, uncover, document and share, natural, lawful Patterns in Nature; including, Patterns within the human being herself
Goethe pointed out, as best he could, how conventional natural Science was employing only one-half of human intelligence; in a modern metaphor, tying one of its two hands behind its back.
200 years later, Ernst Lehrs, in Man and Matter, was able to put a finer edge on many of Goethe’s original points.
Goethe demonstrated how the newly awakened human intelligence of rational Thinking could converge with uninhibited sensory exploration, converge again with internal Thinking and internal Feeling, and come forward with conclusions, documentation (and ultimatly artistic expressions) to share new lawful patterns uncovered.
Goethe believed the new individual, objective rationality, making itself known in the Enlightenment, could be incorporated into a holistic science. Still, in his time he was mostly alone in demonstrating how to do this with his studies of plants, clouds, colors, geography, etc.
Goethe and then RS were at the beginnings, if not the beginning, of starting from the whole-person, then applying Scientific method: horse in front, cart in back; horse pulls cart.
In 1919, Waldorf was a brand new Story of Restoration for K-12 ed. It excited Cultural Creative Progressives of the time, looking for cultural renewal after the death of monarchy and feudalism.
The main other K-12 alternative ed then was mainstream Prussian-style factory schools. RS’s ideas and methods were a bold departure, a bold, Progressive left turn. He proposed acknowledging and working with the Land of Childhood; instead of assuming all children were fated to become Metropolis-style factory labor.
There was no Team Human meme in 1919, nor even a Humanistic Psychology meme, nothing yet “holistic.” Yet, RS’s impulse was allied with these future memes, a “Hail Mary!” throw-forward which proved workable thru excellent attention to details, applied consistently, over decades.
Classic Waldorf was a wonderful example of “if you build it, they will come.”
From his beginnings, as much as possible, Steiner referenced a complete and comprehensive picture of the human being; including, each person’s immortal-eternal aspect (awareness).
In this RS developed an early, “modern,” “scientific,” systematic, rhetoric to the whole human being as a multi-dimensional being. Before RS there was only Theosophy, a Western retelling of east-Indian auras and invisible bodies. Theosophy was more interested in an abstract, evolutionary perspective on mankind as a whole. Rudolf Steiner’s conception of the whole person was more geared towards K-12 education, the “laboratory” where humanity evolved itself.
Not until 1969–1975 did other resonant holistic ideas burst into practical, mainstream expressions. These were the activity of wellness, self-healing, holistic health, holistic healing and Energy Medicine. Little did the New Age and holistic health people suspect Goethe offered a scientific basis for their successes. This wasn’t realized and documented anywehre I know until 2014.
Once Goethean Holistic Science was documented, clarity began to emerge on a realization. Holistic health-healing harked back to Goethe in its theory and method. Goethe’s theory-method of science was exactly what holistic health-healing practitioners had been doing since herbology used for client complaints. Homeopathy was a Goethean science (Goethe professed he was a big fan of homeopathy).
Q: HOW are holistic healing and Goethe connected?
A: Any experimenter who:
- Chooses a phenomena to explore (commonly a client in need),
- Chooses their own method (mode of healing to practice),
- Observes, collects information and does experiments using their method(s) of choice,
- Observes their own inner process and evolving viewpoint,
- Stays alert to new uncovery of Unconscious Patterns previously undocumented; then…
…this person is practicing Goethe’s method of science.
SIDEBAR ~ Whole Earth image
dg-whole earth
For those too young to recall, Wired Magazine began as Whole Earth Catalog. The back-cover of the first Whole Earth Catalog (1968) displayed the words, “We can’t put it together; it is together” (already together, we simply have to recognize and work with the wholeness presented us).
This early call for a holistic way of perceiving-cognizing “went viral;” it was widely circulated and internalized by a generation of activists in multiple fields. By 1985 a globalist view was “common sense” for Cultural Creative Progressives everywhere.
In the late 1700s, stimulated by Newton’s over-use of material-intellectual thinking, Goethe anticipated the coming of holism in the 1970s, 200 years later.
To Learn More on Goethe
I recommend Goethe’s Nature Aphorisms in David Mitchell’s Goethe Science book here: www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/download/e-books/proceed_life_envistudies.pdf
Most up-to-date Goethean Science thinking appears to be Goethean Holistic Science and the Three Sciences We Use Everyday for Holistic Practitioners and Self-Healers: Chapters 19–20 from Balance on All Levels-PACME+Soul Plus Related Essays
For those interested, Ernst Lehrs’ appraisal of Goethean thinking is not to missed ~ Man or Matter, 3rd Ed. (1985). The first edition was never copyrighted and is free online. The third edition is altogether more readable, expanded and recommended up thru chapter 19. Chapter 20 and beyond I consider to be Goethean Spiritual Psychology, which will interest fewer people. In earlier chapters, Goethe’s various studies are summarized with updated language and insights.
Plant archetypes, how to transfer them into tinctures and flower essences (a distinct Energy Medicine method) is here: http://www.flowersociety.org/Repertory/Repertory.pdf
