Tribute to a Pioneer in Phenomenological Physics

In its search for causal explanations, modern science
has increasingly come to focus on particles, genes,
and other hypothetical elements that lie beyond direct
human experience. This reductionist approach has led
to powerful new technologies, but it has failed to give
us an understanding of nature as we can actually
experience it in its richness and depth.

Stephen Edelglass entered MIT at sixteen and began
teaching physics at Cooper Union at age twenty-two.
Because of his deep connection with the arts and with
nature, he increasingly felt the dichotomy between his
vibrant experience of nature and the abstract world of
theoretical physics. At thirty-seven he met
Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy, Waldorf education, and
a new phenomenological approach to science that
satisfied him both as a keen, appreciative observer
and as a thinker. He gave up his position as a
university professor, began teaching high school
physics using an experiential approach, and became
a prime-mover in the development of phenomenological
science in North America.

“In these essays we are led by Edelglass to a deeply
phenomenological engagement with the natural world.
Through that encounter the inquiring human being can
come to a direct perception of the deep coherence
that moves through and creates the beauty around us.
I highly recommend these writings to all who long for a
more intimate understanding of natural phenomena.”
— Arthur Zajonc, Professor of Physics, Amherst College

Contents include:

Biographical Introduction
Empowering Students through Science Education
Isaac Newton and the Chickens
Physics and Reality
What is Matter?
Light as Activity
Model-Free Cognition