Johann W. von. Goethe may be familiar as poet, author, dramatist (Germany’s ‘Shakespeare’), but his work as a scientist had, until recently, been ignored as the idle imaginings of the artist.
His intensity as an artist, combined with his passion for the phenomena of Nature, led him to insights at variance with the scientific direction around him, exemplified by Newton.
Goethe’s method of enquiry brought one notable and recognised contribution to mainstream science (make a search of ‘inter-maxillary bone’), but the result was ultimately mis-interpreted as support for a Darwinism that Goethe would have opposed, while the method by which Goethe had made this significant discovery, was ignored.
Goethe’s life and a description of his worldview can be found in a multitude of studies.
