Goethe
A science that does not eat the other.

In this essay I hope to demonstrate that Goethe’s delicate empiricism is a science of life in all of its forms.To gain a full understanding of life, Goethe’s method requires that the scientist respect and treasure life. I argue that to accomplish this goal one must become an apprentice to life. Becoming an apprentice to life requires that one refuses to eat the Other. is implies that Goethe’s method can be fruitfully employed by anyone who seeks social justice. First, I elaborate on bell hooks idea of eating the Other using several African American social critics. en, I explain Goethe’s delicate empiricism by contrasting it to the science of his day which was grounded in Bacon and Descartes and elaborated by Kant. Finally, by expanding upon Elizabeth Spelman’s discussion of apprenticeship, I develop the idea of a Goethean apprentice who is a practitioner of a science of life based on a morality which opposes eating the Other.* Bill Bywater

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