Ivor and Olive Lewis on wed 14 jul 04
And Intuition...maybe
Dear Steve Slatin,
Thank you for your enlightening commentary. You seem, at heart, to be
a true Philosopher, capable of unobfuscating these complex questions.
I am currently reading Sir Isaac's "Optics" and hope to have access to
translations of Goethe's works in a couple of weeks.
Yes, I did recognise when reading a commentary of Goethe's work that
he was using reflected and not transmitted light for his observations.
Were you aware that Huygens, whose work may predate that of Newton,
was also well aware of the coloured halo effect which became know as
Chromatic Aberration.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
S. Australia.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Slatin"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 1:19
Subject: Re: The History of Debunking: Was: The Nature of Science. was
Metaphor And Intuition...maybe
> Ivor --
>
> Certain personal issues throughout history have affected the way we
> think about various groundbreaking scientists. I am regularly
amused
> by folks whose journal of record is "People" magazine telling me
> in all sincerity that the theories of Einstein, Freud, etc. are
"pretty
> much completely discredited."
>
> Goethe was the much-admired symbol of German culture 100+
> years ago. He was particularly admired by Rudolf Steiner,
> who studied mathematics and physics at university but couldn't
> put together a dissertation in those areas and who consequently
> had to do it in philosophy.
>
> Steiner himself was influential in various areas; "Waldorf Schools"
> are generally attributed to him, but he also spent much of his adult
> life proselytizing for Theosophy, a quasi-religious system he
> largely created, Eurythmy, and like issues.
>
> He wandered in work and spirit for many years and edited
> Goethe's scientific work. Out of these labors he wrote "A
> Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception"
> -- which was an effort to make Goethe's largely incomprehensible
> writings on scientific issues accessible. I believe this work first
> makes the comparison between Newton's observations on
> light and Goethe's. Having devoted many years of his life to
> Goethe's work; Steiner naturally found Goethe's approach more
> satisfying than Newton's.
>
> In fact, Newton created real, reproducible experiments, and by
> using an iris before a light source (as he did) anyone can
> obtain precisely the prismatic results he described.
>
> Goethe made a different observation -- not shining light through a
> prism but looking through a prism at an illuminated object, you will
> see the object with fuzzy color 'halos' outside the object. Also
> reproducible, also meaningful, but as you suggest, coming years
> after Newton, it's more a refinement, or an additional observation,
> than an issue of correct vs. incorrect. It's also less clear what
> meaning attaches to Goethe's observation.
>
> I will not claim to be indifferent to the emotional appeal of
various
> authors. I have read some Goethe, and find him a hopeless
> romantic with few apprehensible ideas. People who read him in
> German tell me his language is quite beautiful; I cannot confirm
this.
>
> I have read (widely but not deeply) of Steiner and find him part of
> the school of misty, sloppy, turn-of-the-last-century German
> romanticism that gave the world Hauptman, Mann, etc. Let me
> quote his definition of his own beloved "Anthroposopy" to make
> my last point --
>
> Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the
human being to the spiritual in the universe. It arises in people as a
need of the heart and feeling life. Anthroposophy can be justified
only to the degree that it satisfies this inner need. It may be
acknowledged only by those who find within it what they themselves
feel the need to seek. Therefore, anthroposophists are those who
experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the
nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences
hunger and thirst. - Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
>
> To evaluate the paragraph by content, the sentences are, in order,
> a definition, an unsupportable statement, and unprovable statement,
> and a meaningless abstraction expressed (wrongly, with the word
> "therefore") as a conclusion. It has about as much actual meaning
> as the advice of Yoda to a young Luke Skywalker. This is an example
> of the thought processes of the person who (I believe) began the
> movement to discredit Newton in favor of Goethe.
>
> Ivor and Olive Lewis wrote:
> Dear Lee Love,
> Recently you suggested that I should start quoting.
> Since you assert <...Newton fudged his prism color experiments so
that
> they would support his theory....>
>
> Steve Slatin -- Entry-level potter, journeyman loafer, master
obfuscator
> Sequim, Washington, USA
> 48.0937=B0N, 123.1465=B0W or thereabouts
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