Repository | Book | Chapter
(1987) Goethe and the sciences, Dordrecht, Springer.
For many, the business of science is to search for causes. So when the would-be scientist Goethe declares to Schiller that ". . . we are not seeking causes but the circumstances under which the phenomenon occurs' ("Erfahrung und Wissenschaft": HA 13, p. 25; Goethe, 1952, p. 228), he seems to be missing the point of the scientific enterprise. He only makes matters worse by maintaining that, "Man in thinking errs particularly when inquiring after cause and effect; the two together constitute the indissoluble phenomenon . . . ["Maximen und Reflexionen", 591: HA 12, p. 446]. "It is rightly said that the phenomenon is a consequence without a ground, an effect without a cause [Goethe, Maximen . . ., 590: HA 12, p. 446].
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-3761-1_12
Full citation:
Zajonc, A. G. (1987)., Facts as theory: aspects of Goethe's philosophy of science, in F. Amrine, F. J. Zucker & H. Wheeler (eds.), Goethe and the sciences, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 219-245.
This document is unfortunately not available for download at the moment.