The science of plant morphology was founded some 200 years ago by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. His scientific publication «Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanze zu erklären» reflects only one special methodological aspect of his way of thinking. The scientific estate left by Goethe contains interesting reflections on morphological thinking, and can give new impulses to plant morphology. The way of comparing forms practised by Goethe in his publication on the metamorphosis of the plant can be described as a mental act of varying the proportions of an organ in a quantitative way, resulting in the form of another organ. [...]
The science of plant morphology was founded some 200 years ago by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. His scientific publication «Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanze zu erklären» reflects only one special methodological aspect of his way of thinking. The scientific estate left by Goethe contains interesting reflections on morphological thinking, and can give new impulses to plant morphology. The way of comparing forms practised by Goethe in his publication on the metamorphosis of the plant can be described as a mental act of varying the proportions of an organ in a quantitative way, resulting in the form of another organ. [...]
The science of plant morphology was founded some 200 years ago by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. His scientific publication «Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanze zu erklären» reflects only one special methodological aspect of his way of thinking. The scientific estate left by Goethe contains interesting reflections on morphological thinking, and can give new impulses to plant morphology. The way of comparing forms practised by Goethe in his publication on the metamorphosis of the plant can be described as a mental act of varying the proportions of an organ in a quantitative way, resulting in the form of another organ. [...]