Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe is the great literary figure of the German people, of a stature comparable to Shakespeare in English Literature.  He is best know for his life-work, Faust, the dramatic re-telling of the classic tale of the man who sells his soul to the devil.  He first appeared on the literary scene in Europe with the "Sturm und Drang" novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, a love story gone wrong.  He is the author of many novels, plays, and poems.

He is less well known, although this is changing, a scientific thinker.  Unlike the natural science of his day, which represented the acme of materialistic and mechanistic thinking about science, nature, and the world, he espoused a "participatory" science where the role of the observer is as critical as the subject matter itself, a viewpoint which resonates with modern theories of Quantum Physics and the role of the observer in creating reality.  His principal scientific works are The Metamorphosis of Plants, where he described his visionof the "Urpflanze" or archetypal plant, and his Theory of Color, in which he tried to oppose the one-sided views of Newton.

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	Theory of Colours by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Goethe himself in fact saw his principle contributions to culture as being in the area of science. He authored …	$4.95