Of all the sciences physics is still considered as the most fundamental, its way of thinking (so strongly linked to mathematics!) about process in nature classically drawing a halt when faced with the idosyncrasies of life.

This by no means implies that life is not part of physics! Rather when thinking physically about the living world about us we are invited to awaken to the physical processes of heat, of light, of the forces we need to understand the dynamics of solidity, fluidity, compressibility and phase-change, to name but a few.

Our “Goethean” approach invites you to taste details the wonder of the physical world far longer than those merely satisfied with a mathematical model. We do not shy from these models - those original phenomena of the spirit - , but risk further questions as to ethics and esthetics so ever-present in our seemingly objective mathematical thought process - see, for example:  Being on Earth.

Through this we hope to find a more intimate relationship to that hidden world of forces: not only at an analytical level (electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces, gravitation), but also at a contextual level (e.g., optical, thermodynamic, mechanical).

Over the years, depending on who has worked here, research on model free (phenomenology) thought about electricity and magnetism, mechanics and optics has developed and is continuing both in the Goetheanum as well as in various centers around the world.