作者:Nigel Hoffmann 
Adonis Press 

In this groundbreaking book, Nigel Hoffmann shows that understanding
 the dynamic, living qualities of nature requires artistic capacities. He 
distinguishes four stages of scientific inquiry that correspond to the four
 classical elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Modern analytical science
 with its causal thinking can be characterized as an Earth mode of 
cognition. A dynamic approach that follows transformation over time 
requires a sculptural sense of form and corresponds to the element of 
Water. The stages of Air and Fire engage yet more vital aspects of nature
 through musical and poetic capacities.
Combining scholarly-scientific acuity with artistic insight, Hoffmann first 
characterizes these four different ways of knowing. He then applies them,
 leading us ever more deeply into the dynamic qualities of specific plants,
 animals, and the landscape they live in. In doing so, he demonstrates how
 this four-step methodology provides a comprehensive framework for the
 life sciences.
This beautifully illustrated book will appeal to all who are interested in gaining 
deeper insights into nature.
“I put my hopes for the future in such practice because it plants seeds of
 a life-attuned thinking into the world that can help us to act in more
 life-engendering ways.” —Craig Holdrege (in his foreword)

Contents:
Art and the Emergence of an Authentic Organic Science
Goethe and the Phenomenological Method
Toward an Authentic Method in the Life Sciences
A Goethean Methodology through the Elemental Modes

Earth Cognition—Physical Thinking—the Mechanical
Water Cognition — Imagination — the Sculptural
Air Cognition — Inspiration — the Musical
Fire Cognition — Intuition — the Poetical

Evolution as Creative Process
The Landscape and its Organs
The Human Being and the Evolution of Landscape
The Yabby Ponds: A Goethean Study of Place 

 174頁

ISBN:978-0-932776-35-8