Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe was born Aug 28, 1749. He was a genius polymath, one of the most widely quoted of German poets. Not widely known today among Americans, he was a zoologist, botanist and geologist who was both famous in world literature and an intellectual with an interest in science. He coined the term morphology to describe the systematic study of the structure of living things. He wrote ably, though mostly wrongly, on matters of science. His Zur Farbenlehre (On the Theory of Colour, 1810), parted radically from Newtons interpretation of white light as a mixture of colours. Goethe took the position of a neptunist in geology. In biology, he saw all plant structures as modifications of leaf forms. However, he agreed with evolution whereby he viewed the origin of plants and animals as having followed specialization and differentiation throughout time to their present forms. A among his famous quotes: There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 473:44. The history of the sciences is a great fugue, in which the voices of the nations come one by one into notice. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 64:23. Hypotheses are the scaffolds which are erected in front of a building and removed when the building is completed. They are indispensable to the worker; but the worker must not mistake the scaffolding for the building. — Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMaxims and Reflections (1998), as quoted without further citation, in Gérard Chaouat and James Frederick Mowbray (eds.), Biologie Cellulaire Et Moléculaire de la Relation Materno-foetale (1991), 267. My wife Annekes father Erich Leyens, who grew up in Germany in tne first decade of tne 20th century, found it difficult to conclude any extended conversation without quoting Goethe. One of his favorite was his poem Gingko Bilboa which Goethe wrote to a lover, based on the two part leaf of the lovely tree.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:45:55 +0000
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