Man or Matter
Lehrs, Ernst
English
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MAN OR MATTER
Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature
on the Basis of Goethe's Method of Training Observation and Thought
by
ERNST LEHRS Ph. D.
Part I
SCIENCE AT THE THRESHOLD
I. INTRODUCTORY
The author's search for a way of extending the boundaries of scientific
understanding. A meeting with Rudolf Steiner, and with the work arising
from his teachings.
II. WHERE DO WE STAND TO-DAY?
The self-restriction of scientific inquiry to one-eyed colourblind
observation. Its effect: The lack of a true conception of 'force'.
III. THE ONLOOKER'S PHILOSOPHIC MALADY
Thought - the sole reality and yet a pure non-entity for the modern
spectator. Descartes and Hume. Robert Hooke's 'proof' of the
non-reality of conceptual thinking. The modern principle of
Indeterminacy - a sign that science is still dominated by the Humean
way of thinking.
IV. THE COUNTRY THAT IS NOT OURS
Electricity, man's competitor in modern civilization. The onlooker in
search of the soul of nature. Galvani and Crookes. Paradoxes in the
discovery of electricity. 'Something unknown is doing we don't know
what.'
Part II GOETHEANISM - WHENCE AND WHITHER
V. THE ADVENTURE OF REASON
Kant and Goethe. Goethe's study of the plant - a path toward seeing
with the eye-of-the-spirit. Nature a script that asks to be read.
VI. EXCEPT WE BECOME ...
Spiritual kinsmen of Goethe in the British sphere of human culture.
Thomas Reid's philosophic discovery, its significance for the
overcoming of the onlooker-standpoint in science. The picture of man
inherent in Reid's philosophy. Man's original gift of remembering his
pre-earthly life. The disappearance of this memory in the past, and its
re-appearance in modern times. Pelagius versus Augustine. Wordsworth
and Traherne. Traherne, a 'Reidean before Reid was born'.
VII. 'ALWAYS STAND BY FORM'
Ruskin and Howard - two readers in the book of nature. Goethe's
meteorological ideas. His conception of the urphenomenon. Goethe and
Howard.
VIII. DYNAMICS VERSUS KINETICS
The onlooker science - by necessity a 'pointer-reading' science. The
onlooker's misjudgment of the cognitive value of the impressions
conveyed by the senses. The Parallelogram of Forces - its fallacious
kinematic and its true dynamic interpretation. The roots in man of his
concepts 'mass' and 'force'. The formula F=ma. The origin of man's
faculty of mathematical thinking.
IX. PRO LEVITATE
(a) ALERTNESS CONTRA INERTNESS
Limitations of the validity of the concept 'inertia'. Restatement of
Newton's first law. Introduction of the term 'magical' as opposed to
mechanical. The phenomenon of the rising arm. Introduction of the term
'alertness' as opposed to 'inertness' (inertia).
Van Helmont's discovery of the gaseous state of matter. The four
Elements. The old concept of 'Chaos'. Young and old matter. The natural
facts behind the ancient fire rites. The event on Mount Sinai.
(b) LEVITY CONTRA GRAVITY
The Contra Levitatem maxim of the Florentine Academicians. Ruskin's
warning against science as an interpreter of its own observations. How
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