Goethe's World View
GA 6
Preface to the New Edition
[ 1 ] I undertook the description of Goethe's world view attempted in this work in 1897 as a summarizing account of what I had gained from the contemplation of Goethe's spiritual life over the course of many years. The "Preface to the first edition" gives a picture of how I felt about my aim at the time. If I were writing this preface today, I would by no means write it differently in terms of content, but only in terms of style. However, since there is no apparent reason for me to change anything essential about this book, it would seem to me to be dishonest to speak in a different tone today of the sentiments with which I sent the book into the world twenty years ago. Neither what I have been able to follow in the literature about Goethe since its publication, nor what the latest research into nature has produced, has changed the thoughts I expressed in the book. I believe I am not without sympathy for the great progress made in this research over the last twenty years. I do not believe that they give me a reason to speak differently about Goethe's world view than I did in 1897. What I have said about the relationship of Goethe's world view to the generally recognized ideas of nature at that time also seems to me to apply to the natural science of our day. The attitude of my book would be no different if I had written it in the present. The only difference between the new edition and the old one is what I consider to be important extensions and additions in some places.
[ 2 ] I have stated in the "Afterword" appended to this new edition that I cannot be forced to make any substantial changes to the content of what I have published on spiritual science over the past sixteen years.
Rudolf Steiner