from the publisher:
Originally known as an interpreter of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rudolf Steiner at the age of twenty-one was asked to be the editor of Goethe's scientific writings for a new collection of Goethe's complete works. It was by thoroughly assimilating and appropriating Goethe's way of thinking during this time that Steiner began his own training in epistemology and spiritual science.

Natural science had created a powerful tool for understanding the inorganic world, but failed to comprehend the phenomenon of life. Goethe discovered how thinking could be applied to organic nature, and he understood that this experience requires not rational concepts but a whole new way of perceiving. Steiner develops Goethe's theory of knowledge in remarkable ways, and we see here the seeds of all that flowered into Steiner's spiritual science. Includes an essay on participatory science by John Michael Barnes.