The will to create : Goethe's philosophy of nature / Astrida Orle Tantillo.

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002.

xii, 241 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-233) and index.

The democracy of polar pairs -- Polarity and creation myths -- The theory of colors -- Perception and the physical and "spiritual" eyes -- The subject and object and the argument against hierarchy -- Nature's inner drive -- The metamorphosis of plants -- The transcendence of matter -- Steigerung and scientific writing -- The theory of colors -- The scientific methodology of Steigerung -- The red and the green -- The poetry of science -- The case against teleology -- Scientific methodology and the type -- The principle of compensation -- Goethe and evolution -- Inanimate nature and the "will" to create -- The aesthetics of compensation -- The coming-to-be of parts and wholes -- Natural insurrections -- The barnacles and the state of nature -- The natural philosophy of sex and gender -- Masculine and feminine tendencies -- Plants and human beings.