8. Professional responsibility
In this sense, therefore, Goethe sees the task of design as one carrying serious responsibility. He coined the word 'morphology' and described the task of morphology as being to recognise living forms as such and "to master them, to a certain extent, in their wholeness through a concrete vision". What is translated here as 'concrete vision' is the German word anschauung, which Agnes Atber said "may be held to signify the intensive knowledge gained through contemplation of the visible aspect".
It is possible to interpret this subjectively so that 'knowing the phenomenon' is to understand it subjectively, but Goethe had a deeper and more comprehensive view, that it is the phenomenon itself which appears in consciousness when it is known. In other words he takes 'consciousness' as being a higher level of existence itself so that 'being known', or more correctly, 'becoming known', is an evolutionary development of nature itself during which the phenomenon itself becomes 'present'.
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Consequently the knower is not an onlooker but is a participant in - and therefore a custodian of - nature's processes. Once a phenomenon is 'known', it can be energised in consciousness, to produce the phenomenon consciously and thus produce the effects of the phenomenon consciously. Then the phenomenon can be energised externally (made real - 'real-ised') to produce the phenomenon and its effects materially. This understanding leads Goethe to see the responsibility which is inevitably carried by those who choose to create. His comment is a fitting guide towards the philosophical education of designers, that "through the contemplation of an ever creating nature, we should make ourselves worthy of spiritual participation in her production". |