Article: Literature & science: paradigm shifts implicit in the works of Goethe.(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)(Critical essay)

Literature and science have a closer relationship than may at first meet the eye. In this paper, the catalytic function of literature in effecting important new ways of seeing and conceptualising the world of the scientist is predicated. As background to this argument, some of the major paradigm shifts that have brought us from a classical Newtonian, mechanistic world to a modern quantum perspective are discussed. Early quantum scientists themselves refer to literary ideas impacting upon their vision of reality; with this in mind, important philosophical ideas that are played out in Goethe's works and which helped to galvanise a paradigm shift in science are discussed. My ...

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