GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Zur Naturwissenschaft überhaupt, besonders zur Morphologie, Erfahrung, Betrachtung, Folgerung, durch Lebensereignisse verbunden. First edition of Goethe's scientific journal, complete in the original wrappers. Comprising Goethe's Contributions to Morphology, Metamorphosis of Plants, Theory of Chromatics, essays on natural philosophy, and original poetry in German and Latin, these writings present the central tenet of Goethean science: that there is unity in nature and human experience.Zur Naturwissenschaft includes the first appearance of Contributions to Morphology and reprints The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790); the latter was Goethe's first published scientific writing and combines personal narrative with scientific report. The journal also reprints Goethe's Theory of Chromatics, which was first published in 1810.The morphological sections contain the first printing of Goethe's description of the human intermaxillary bone, which anticipated Darwin's theory of evolution. The bone had been found in other mammals, but after his discovery Goethe rejected the anthropocentrism of contemporary natural sciences and embraced a proto-Darwinian outlook. The description is a significant testament to the changing approach to natural sciences. "What determines any creature is the harmony of its parts, and man is man by the shape and nature of his upper jaw as much as by the shape and nature of the smallest joint of his little toe. And each creature is only a note, a nuance, in one great

• Printing: first

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