Better known as a poet and dramatist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was also a learned philosopher and natural scientist. Astrida Orle Tantillo offers the first comprehensive analysis of his natural philosophy, which she contends is rooted in creativity. Tantillo analyzes Goethe’s main scientific texts, including his work on physics, botany, comparative anatomy, and metereology. She critically examines his attempts to challenge the basic tenets of Newtonian and Cartesian science and to found a new natural philosophy. In individual chapters devoted to different key principles, she reveals how this natural philosophy—which questions rationalism, the quantitative approach to scientific inquiry, strict gender categories, and the possibility of scientific objectivity—illuminates Goethe’s standing as both a precursor and critic of modernity. Tantillo does not presuppose prior knowledge of Goethe or science, and carefully avoids an overreliance on specialized jargon. This makes The Will to Create accessible to a wide audience, including philosophers, historians of science, and literary theorists, as well as general readers.

“Tantillo takes the reader on a fascinating and illuminating journey of discovery through Goethe’s life as a scientist and poet. . . . Those who have moved beyond the two-cultures debate—and there are many of us in the sciences and the humanities—will want to acquire this book immediately. It will stimulate reflection, it will convince by its thorough familiarity with Goethe’s works, it will persuade by its clarity of structure and fluidity of style. It is, first and foremost, a timely book as it underscores Goethe’s anticipation of holism in ‘green science,’ ecocriticism, and the renewed movement toward consilience in the natural sciences. . . . I highly recommend this exciting and incisive study to anyone interested in the nature of creativity.”—John A. McCarthy, Vanderbilt University

“Must Read !!!!!”—Today’s Books Public News Service, September 16, 2002

“ Tantillo provides a valuable, lucid analysis of Goethe’s scientific writings, showing (as have others) that these works are not what one would today consider scientific writing.” —Choice, November 2002

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