Towards a Holistic Science
Discourse on the good, the true - the stuff of science - and the beautiful seem so distinct from one another, as distinct as religion is from science or art. And science is science. Or so it seems to be.
Yet it is our interests (an aesthetic drive?) as well as our beliefs which define the business of science: We believe that mathematics helps us understand the world, that the sun will rise tomorrow or that we are ultimately responsible for our technology.
An anthroposophically oriented science feels it important to take these more or less conscious moments of 'doing science' more seriously. Where are the sources of these so different thought-structures? How different is the gut certainty of two and three being five from the deliberations leading to the judgement that it is a 'plane and not a bird on wing flying overhead. And all of these require a more or less heart-felt interest for the issue to be kept in human consciousness.
This seemingly introspective approach serves to sharpen our perceptions of the individual phenomena, of their interconnections as well as of their consequences for the world. Rudolf Steiner called this extension of the scientific method Goetheanism.
There are several places in the world where the above kind of science with its strongly phenomenological bent is followed in Switzerland (
general, Biology), Germany ( Flow Sciences, Fluid mechanics and cancer research, Goethean research, landscape) Great Britain, The Netherlands (biology, genetic engineering) and the USA.
You may find a list of the activities at the Goetheanum here while some activities are coordinated in the School of Nature
You may also peruse the list of scientific publications to get an idea of research directions.
Responsible for these sections: David Auerbach