Hueck, Christoph J. (2026) Seeing the organism with ‘living’ concepts: Goethe, Steiner, and the epistemology of organic self-formation - preprint. [Preprint]

	Text PRODUCTIVE INTUITION OF AN ORGANISM’S VITAL FORCE IN GOETHE AND STEINER - final preprint version.pdf - Updated Version Download (823kB)
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Abstract

The living organism raises a distinctive epistemological problem: biology presupposes wholeness, purposiveness, and self-generation, yet these cannot be derived from interactions among independently identifiable parts. I argue that the classic opposition between mechanism, vitalism, and organicism reflects different responses to this difficulty—how organisms become intelligible objects of knowledge. Building on Kant’s analysis of teleological judgment, I offer a systematic reading of Goethe’s morphology and Steiner’s interpretation of it. Goethe’s conception of plant metamorphosis is presented as a morphological construction: not the subsumption of data under fixed concepts, but the use of transformable “living concepts” that reconstruct a formative process, analogous to (yet distinct from) mathematical construction in physics. Steiner radicalizes this idea by claiming that productive reconstruction can disclose not only lawful organization but the organism’s self-generating activity. In dialogue with Fichte’s notion of intellectual intuition, I propose that reenacting organic formation in thought establishes a structural correspondence (not identity) between cognitive activity and organic self-formation. The result is neither ontological vitalism nor a merely methodological organicism. This epistemology complements, rather than replaces, causal-mechanistic analysis.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Hueck, Christoph J. hueck@akanthos-akademie.de 0009-0008-2513-1919
Keywords:	Organicism; Vitalism; Goethean Science; Urpflanze; Intuitive Understanding; Intellectual Intuition
Subjects:	General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Dr. Christoph J. Hueck
Date Deposited:	23 Feb 2026 13:59
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2026 13:59
Item ID:	28315
Subjects:	General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	22 February 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/28315

Available Versions of this Item

• Productive Intuition of an Organism's Vital Force in Goethe and Steiner - preprint. (deposited 11 Jul 2025 13:06)
  • Seeing the organism with ‘living’ concepts: Goethe, Steiner, and the epistemology of organic self-formation - preprint. (deposited 23 Feb 2026 13:59) [Currently Displayed]
    • Seeing the organism with ‘living’ concepts: Goethe, Steiner, and the epistemology of organic self-formation. (deposited 06 May 2026 19:17)

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