Craig Holdrege

Director and Senior Researcher

Craig Holdrege, Ph.D., is The Nature Institute’s director and spearheaded its founding in 1998. His passion is to develop what Goethe called “delicate empiricism” — an approach that learns from nature how to understand nature and is infused with a cautious and critical awareness of how intentions and habits of mind affect human understanding. Craig carries out studies of animals and plants that tell the story of these organisms as dynamic and integrated beings within the larger web of life. This whole-organism perspective also sheds fresh light on development and evolution. His whole-organism studies, as well as his commentaries on scientific thinking and new developments in the biological sciences, aim to stimulate a transformation in human thinking and perception and a deep respect for our fellow creatures.

He has written books, monographs and many articles, most of which can be viewed on this website. His most recent books are Seeing the Animal Whole—And Why It Matters, Do Frogs Come from Tadpoles? and Thinking Like a Plant.

Craig gives talks, workshops, and courses in the U.S. and around the globe on the topics of whole organism biology, science and nature education, and the methodology of “delicate empiricism.” Since the founding of The Nature Institute he has taught in many of the Institute’s courses for adults concerned with the phenomenological and experiential approach to nature study and biology (see the Institute’s Education Programs). He mentors adult learners and teachers.

For many years Craig researched and wrote about genetics and genetic engineering in relation to the broader context of internal and external ecology of living organisms. This work culminated in the book Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren Promise of Genetic Engineering, co-authored with Stephen L. Talbott (University of Kentucky Press, 2008) and in The Nature Institute’s Nontarget website concerned with the unintended effects of genetic manipulations on plants, animals, and the environment.

Before co-founding The Nature Institute, Craig was a high school biology teacher in Waldorf Schools, working in Germany for 12 years and then in the U.S. for nine years. Since the early 1990s, Craig has been involved in teacher training. Craig has a Ph.D. in sustainability education from Prescott College in Arizona. He completed a Masters-level, non-degree program in phenomenological science at the Science Research Laboratory at the Goetheanum, Switzerland, and has a B.A. in philosophy from Beloit College.