Henri Bortoft
Encyclopedia
Henri Bortoft is an independent researcher and teacher, lecturer and writer on physics and the philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...

. He is best known for his work The Wholeness of Nature, considered a relevant and original recent interpretation of Goethean science
Goethean science
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, although primarily known as a literary figure, did research in morphology, anatomy, and optics, and also developed a phenomenological approach to science and to knowledge in general....

.

Bortoft completed his studies at the University of Hull
University of Hull
The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...

, and then performed postgraduate research on the foundations of quantum physics at Birkbeck College, where theoretical physicist David Bohm
David Bohm
David Joseph Bohm FRS was an American-born British quantum physicist who contributed to theoretical physics, philosophy, neuropsychology, and the Manhattan Project.-Youth and college:...

 introduced him to the problem of wholeness
Holism in science
Holism in science, or Holistic science, is an approach to research that emphasizes the study of complex systems. This practice is in contrast to a purely analytic tradition which aims to gain understanding of systems by dividing them into smaller composing elements and gaining understanding of the...

 in quantum theory. Subsequently, Bortoft worked with John G. Bennett
John G. Bennett
John Godolphin Bennett, was a British mathematician, scientist, technologist, industrial research director, and author. He is perhaps best known for his many books on psychology and spirituality, and particularly the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff...

 on the topic of perception of wholeness.

Bortoft teaches physics and philosophy of science at Schumacher College
Schumacher College
Schumacher College was founded in 1991 in Dartington, Totnes, Devon, UK by Satish Kumar, John Lane and others. It was named after E.F. Schumacher. It is an international centre offering transformative learning for sustainable living, and runs holistic education courses...

 in the framework of the program in Holistic Science. He has held numerous lectures and seminars in Great Britain and the United States on the scientific work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

 and on the development of modern science.

Works

  • The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe's way toward a science of conscious participation in nature, Lindisfarne Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0940262799
  • Goethe's Scientific Consciousness, Octagon press, 1986, ISBN 978-0904674101
  • Counterfeit and Authentic Wholes, In D. Seamon and R. Mugerauer, eds.: Dwelling, Place and Environment: Toward a Phenomenology of Person and World, pp. 281-302, Columbia University Press, 1985
  • The Whole: Counterfeit and Authentic, Systematics, 9 (2): 43-73., 1971
  • with J. G. Bennett and K. W. Pledge: Towards an objectively complete language: An essay in objective description as applied to scientific procedure, Systematics, vol. 3, no. 3, 1965

External links

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