The Third Culture

Modern science, with its causal and quantitative methods, provides the basis for our technology-driven society. However, the technological prowess that brought incredible wealth and power has also led to the exploitation and degradation of nature. In addition, the reductive methods of modern science have left us without a truly scientific understanding of our own immediate experience—the creative human spirit and the qualitative richness and dynamic wholeness of natural phenomena.

Retracing the evolution of human consciousness, this lively book shows how participatory methods are emerging as the necessary next step in the development of science. As inaugurated by Goethe, further developed by Steiner, and independently conceived of by Polanyi, this new scientific approach calls for conscious participation in the processes and qualities of the world. It sees them as manifestations of creative forces that elude the methods of materialistic science. Insights into the dynamic principles of life and spirit provide the basis for a healing culture.

Contents

Foreword
Participatory Science
The Crisis of Objectivism
From Monism to Dualism
Michael Polanyi’s Personal Knowledge
Goethe
Steiner
Anthroposophy
Art
Applied Participatory Science
Toward a Third Culture
Notes