The University at the Threshold: Orientation Through Goethean Science

“A threshold is a juncture of the path unlike any other, although many events may have anticipated it. What occurs there is the realization that what is beyond is utterly different from what has already been passed through. The Threshold demands a change of heart, a turning around in the seat of consciousness” (from the introduction).

Basing this practical study of human care for the world around us, Nigel Hoffmann takes us to a threshold beyond which lies a true science of living form. Care, he says, springs from the whole human being―the thinking, heart, and will―and is implicit in the scientific method of conscious inner participation in nature, which derives from the work of the poet and scientist Goethe. The Goethean approach―a living form that unites science and art―is not an alternative to contemporary natural science, but complements it. Artistic practice, says Hoffmann, is a guide across the threshold and into the sphere of the living whole. However, artistic sensibility can be lifted to higher possibilities of itself, allowing us to discover the faculties of cognitive feeling and cognitive will.

The author calls for a grounding in Goethean science for all students as a preliminary to their specialist and professional studies. He introduces us to the concept of the metamorphosis of the university―from the doctoral ideal to the ideal of the whole human being―and concludes with a case study of the economic sphere and capital using Goethean methodology. This profound book indicates a transformative path for human culture and civilization in the twenty-first century. 

Nigel Hoffmann was born in Sydney, Australia. He has been a high school teacher for eighteen years in Australian and Swiss Steiner–Waldorf schools. He is the author of Goethe’s Science of Living Form: The Artistic Stages (Adonis Press) and is a director of the Education for Social Renewal Foundation.