J Altern Complement Med. 2003 Apr; 9(2): 311-20.

Goethean science: an alternative approach.

Whitelegg M.

Department of Nursing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK. mewhitelegg@uclan.ac.uk

This paper considers the science of the poet Goethe as furnishing a complementary epistemology for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), standing alongside and very different from conventional scientific methodology. Through reference to key texts it explores the phenomenological "science of qualities" that aims to allow the scientist, through robust training, to appreciate and intuit the wholeness inherent in nature, so that Goethe could claim the human being to be the most sensitive instrument. Goethe's color theory-a challenge to Newtonian thinking-and his study of plants are explored to illustrate a profoundly different way of looking at nature that celebrates the subjective and relational as a route to perceiving the whole. Ideas toward application of Goethe's approach within CAM are considered and the relevance of this approach as an alternative methodological enquiry toward consideration of wholeness and healing are offered.