Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis: Evolution in Action

Metamorphosis is the result of a lifetime of biological research seeking to penetrate through the phenomena to the formative principles that have shaped them. Following Goethe’s participatory method, and drawing on his observations on a number of continents, Andreas Suchantke shows how the development and evolution of plants and animals can be understood in terms of metamorphosis. Through his eyes, we come to see evolution as a dynamic process that unfolds on a far more fundamental level than Darwin’s natural selection. In the age of stem cell research, Suchantke’s insights into the formation of organisms as integrated wholes offer a much-needed complement to the findings of conventional genetics and microbiology.

Beautifully illustrated through the author’s own drawings and color photographs, this masterly work offers a rich, dynamic and deeply meaningful understanding of organic life.

C O N T E N T S:

About the Author and this Book
Foreword
Introduction: Metamorphosis—Evolution in Action

1. Archetype and Evolution—a Contradiction? Understanding Metamorphosis
2. An Example of Metamorphosis: Goethe’s Idea of the Vertebral Nature of the Cranial Bones
3. “From top to bottom the plant is all leaf.” Formative Tendencies in the Domain of the Leaf
4. The Blossom
5. Interim Summary: Metamorphoses—the Key to Understanding the Nature of Life
6. The Various Forms of Metamorphosis in the Plant Kingdom
7. Polarity and Threefold Organization: The Dynamics of Metamorphosis
8. Polarity and Threefold Structure in the Animal Kingdom
9. The Archetype in Action—Vacillation between the Inner and the Outer
10. The All-pervasive Endoskeleton
11. The Fate of Exoskeleton and Endoskeleton in the Further Course of Evolution

Notes and References
Bibliography

About the Author

Andreas Suchantke was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1933. He was trained in zoology and botany at the universities of Munich and Basel and taught natural sciences for nineteen years in the Waldorf school in Zurich. He has worked extensively in Waldorf teacher training programs around the world. Andreas Suchantke describes himself as a “freelance ecologist,” and works especially in Israel in cooperation with the Society for the Protection of Nature.