Scientific Practice Modeled After Life:
A Full-time Immersion Course
April 2 to June 16, 2006

If we want to attain a living understanding of nature, we must become as living and flexible as nature herself. — Goethe

Goethe's approach to science presents us with the challenge and the opportunity to move beyond the static, object-like abstractions of contemporary thought to a fluid, transformative way of thinking. Enabling us to grasp dynamic processes and development, it leads to a true science of life.

This transformation of thinking begins when we become aware of our ingrained habits of thought, work to overcome these habits, and start developing new ways of seeing and thinking. With the will to learn from the phenomena, we can develop what Goethe called "delicate empiricism," which weds flexible thinking with careful observation. Then nature begins to show herself in surprising new ways, and we gain a deeper connection to her.

Since learning the Goethean approach is not a matter of surface change but calls for in-depth transformation, our program is a full-time, eleven-week training. It provides the day-to-day immersion needed to acquire and internalize those new capacities. The course will be held in the springtime, since the rapidly and richly unfolding plant life in the Northeast provides an ideal focus for learning a practice modeled after life itself.

The Nature Institute provides an ideal setting for a nature-based course of study. It is located in rural eastern New York, at the foot of the Taconic Range. Surrounded by forests, meadows, wetlands, creeks, ponds and many transitional habitats, the Institute is also the steward of a nearby 29-acre nature preserve. The Institute neighbors Hawthorne Valley, with its 400-acre biodynamic farm, a farmscape ecology program, a natural food store, and a K-12 Waldorf school.

Course Description

Seminars: Practice and Method of the Goethean Approach
The Dynamic Plant: Morphology, Metamorphosis, and Ecology
(Craig Holdrege, Biologist and Educator; Director, The Nature Institute)

Seeing With Fresh Eyes: Phenomenological Exploration of the Visual World
(Henrike Holdrege, Biologist and Mathematician; The Nature Institute)

Developing Fluid Thinking Through Projective Geometry
(Henrike Holdrege)

Individual Project
Since practice is key to learning the Goethean approach to science, the individual project is a central feature of the course. Each student chooses an area of study (a plant species or family, a species comparison, a habitat study, etc.) in which he or she applies the methods learned during the seminars. This observation-based project is mentored by Craig Holdrege and extends over the length of the course. Each student gives a project presentation at the end of the course.

Field Trips

Additional Classes
Drawing from Nature (to be announced)
Evolution of Consciousness (Douglas Sloan, Prof. Emeritus of History and Education, Columbia University)

Talks and Workshops by Guest Teachers
Offerings include:
Phenomenological Physics (Michael D'Aleo, physics teacher, Spring Hill Waldorf School)
Language and Nature (Gertrude Hughes, Prof. of English, Wesleyan University)
Dynamic Patterns in Animal Morphology (Martin Lockley, Director, Dinosaur Tracks Museum, University of Colorado at Denver)
Science, Technology and the Human Prospect (Steve Talbott, Senior Researcher and Editor of NetFuture, The Nature Institute)
Science and Spirituality (Arthur Zajonc, Prof. of Physics, Amherst College)

The 11-week training is full-time; classes are held five days per week. Mornings are devoted to seminars and the afternoons to project work, drawing, field trips, and guest workshops.

Who is the program for? For people who are deeply interested in nature and motivated to develop a new scientific practice. For example, the program offers teachers, farmers, herbalists, undergraduate or graduate students the opportunity to instill new life into their disciplines by learning a rigorous holistic methodology. People from all walks of life will profit from this practice-based course.

The program has a minimum enrollment of seven and a maximum of fifteen. It is offered every other year. College students should inquire about the possibility of receiving college credits.

Tuition is $3,200.

We help students find reasonably priced rooms with families in the surrounding area.

Applications must be received by January 15, 2006.

Please apply early, since space is limited.

For more information please contact us:
telephone: 518-672-0116
e-mail: info@natureinsitute.org

Goethean Science Studies
The Nature Institute
20 May Hill Road
Ghent, New York 12075