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This book explains the background and rationale of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's notorious attack on Isaac Newton's classic theory of white light and colors. Though the merits of Goethe's color science, as advanced in his massive Zur Farbenlehre, have often been acknowledged, it has been almost unanimously proclaimed invalid as physics. How could Goethe have been so mistaken? In his book, Dennis Sepper shows that the condemnation of Goethe's attacks on Newton has been based on erroneous assumptions about the history of Newton's theory and the methods and goals of Goethe's color science. By illuminating the historical background and the experimental, methodological, and philosophical aspects of Goethe's work, the author shows that his color theory is in an important sense genuinely physical and that, as simultaneously poet, scientist, historian, and philosopher, Goethe managed to anticipate important twentieth-century research not only in the history and philosophy of science, but even in color science itself.
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Goethe contra Newton
GOETHE CONTRA NEWTON Polemics and the project for a new science of color DENNIS L. SEPPER Department of Philosophy University of Dallas
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Cambridge University Press Cambridge New York New Rochelle Melbourne Sydney
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1988 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1988 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Sepper, Dennis. L. Goethe contra Newton: polemics and the project for a new science of color /by Dennis L. Sepper. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Color. 2. Color - History. 3. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832. 4. Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642—1727.1. Title. QC495.S43 1988 635.6-dcl9 87-21463 C1P ISBN 0 521 34254 6 hardback ISBN 0 521 53132 2 paperback
To my family
Have thought about fiction and science. The disaster they cause comes from the need of reflective reason, which creates for its own use a sort of image, but thereafter sets it up as true and concrete. - Goethe To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. — Newton Men who like him had taken up the entire abundance of the elements of their age's culture without being constricted in the natural independence of their sensibility, who as ethically free individuals in the noblest sense of the word needed only to follow their fervent, inborn sympathy for all stirrings of the human spirit in order to find the right way amidst the cliffs of life, already in our times have become very rare and will likely become rarer. - Helmholtz
Contents Preface
page ix
List of abbreviations
xv
1 Defining the questions of the Farbenlehre The critical dilemma Color theory, color phenomena An overview of the argument
i i 9 16
2 The Farbenlehre in its origin Goethe's writings on color Goethe's work in color science: the beginnings The Ger