Articles

Abstract:

This study investigates the relationship of reproducibility and variability in the non-living and living natural world as well as in the realm of ideas. In the different contexts, this relationship varies not only gradually but in principle. In the non- living an either/or relationship prevails, where reproducibility and variability are polar opposites. In living organisms, harmony and interpenetration predominate. Stages and formative processes are functionally interwoven with one another. This is a principle that is embraced by the concept of metamorphosis. In the realm of ideas, for our intellectual thinking, reproducibility and variability are still present indistinguishably as a unity. Using the idea of ‘goodness’ of Plato, Alanus ab Insulis and Rudolf Steiner, it is shown how reproducibility and variability can be developed through spiritual science with the help of thought forms. Natural science firmly demands reproducibility. But when the latter’s relationship to variability in different contexts is grasped consciously, additional methods become available for describing the systems of living and non-living nature.