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Fancy this. I nearly fell off my chair. Came upon the word
"Anthroposophy" in print in the journal Nature while reading a
"concepts" article just out by Senior Editor Henry Gee which is denying that
evolution is progressive.
First some quotes of Gee's viewpoint: "It [evolution] is not a force, an
entity separate from the materials on which it acts." "It is directionless with
respect to history; if there is direction in evolution (perhaps biased by
developmental constraint), it is not propelled by any inherent drive for
improvement." "...mindless selection."
Gee asks "So why, almost a century and a half after Darwin, do we still so
readily accept this view of evolution as progressive?" He then answers "I
blame nature philosophy, a remarkable movement that flowered in Germany in the
eighteenth century, and whose adherents were both acutely scientific and
breathlessly romantic at the same time."
Gee then gives a dandy quote from Oken: " 'What is the animal kingdom other
than an anatomized man, the macrocosm of the microcosm?' " [Anyone know source
of that passage?] and moves on to Goethe. Then smack dab in the middle of
the page, Gee writes: "Although nature philosophy is long dead, such sentiments
still find ready acceptance among alternative or 'holistic' philosophies.
Anthroposophy--the world view of twentieth-century philosopher Rudolf
Steiner--draws heavily on Goethe, and a germ of nature philosophy survives, if
buried, in every anti-scientific, anti-establishment eco-warrior."
Not exactly a flattering presentation of anthroposophy. Yet, Gee does close
his opinion piece thus: "Perhaps there is a nature philosopher in us
all."
_______________________________________________________________________ Barry Lia \ [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ Seattle WA |
