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Helmholtz's Critique of Goethe's Theory of Colo
Helmholtz's Critique of Goethe's Theory of Colo
Helmholtz’s Critique of Goethe’s Theory of Color More than Meets the Eye
PII: S0039-6257(18)30148-6
DOI: 10.1016/j.survophthal.2018.10.004
Reference: SOP 6823
Please cite this article as: Margo CE, Harman LE, Helmholtz’s Critique of Goethe’s Theory of
Color More than Meets the Eye, Survey of Ophthalmology (2018), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.survophthal.2018.10.004.
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Curtis E. Margo Ϯ* and Lynn E. Harman*
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Ϯ Departments of Pathology and Cell Biology, and *Ophthalmology, Morsani
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Corresponding author: Dr. Curtis E. Margo, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Box 21,
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Abstract
After arriving at the University of Königsberg in 1849, Hermann von Helmholtz started
investigating the trichromatic hypothesis of color perception proposed by Thomas Young. Four
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years later in 1853 he was invited to lecture to the German Society and used the opportunity to
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criticize harshly Johann Goethe’s Theory of Color published in 1810. Offending a revered
member of German society was an odd method of introducing the study of color to a learned
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audience. but the content and tone of the lecture suggested Helmholtz was more concerned
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nature of color. By 1860, Helmholtz’s color mixing experiments provided further evidence for
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the trichromatic hypothesis. Goethe’s ideas about color resonated intuitively with generations
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of artists, but the imperviousness of his theory to experimental testing set it apart from the
arena of science.
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“In the present case we assume a white and black already produced and fixed; and the
question is, how colour can be excited in them?” — Johann Goethe 5p206¶501
“The scientific Goethe was a disturbing figure from the outset because his strangely
capricious mind flittered like a butterfly over the diverse mysteries of nature that he endlessly
explored over and over again.” ─ Michel Meulders 14p107
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1. Introduction
In 1850, Hermann von Helmholtz (1821 – 1894) turned his attention to the study of
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color. He would initially encounter difficulty in confirming the trichromatic hypothesis proposed
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by Thomas Young. In the spring of 1853, Helmholtz delivered a lecture before the German
Society of Königsberg “On Goethe’s Scientific Researches,” in which he assessed the venerated
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poet’s explanation of color as “absolutely irrational” and the sum of this work an “egregious
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failure.” 25p20-1 These were harsh words given the exalted position Johann Wolfgang Goethe
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Helmholtz’s admission that Goethe was a talented writer and had contributed knowledge to
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the field of descriptive biology. Yet it seemed curious why Helmholtz would draw a dead poet
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into a controversy over the nature of color given his own uncertainties on the subject. Did
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Helmholtz have another goal in mind? When viewed in context of traditional descriptive
biology, the lecture can be seen as an announcement that a “new” physiology has arrived: a
on a two-volume work published in 1810, Theory of Color (Zur Farbenlehre). 5,6,A Portions of
Goethe’s treatise on color became infamous for its attack on Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727). In
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retrospect, the diatribe raised the profile of the book more that its scholarly contents did.
2p8,3,7,20
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Goethe had been interested in light and color for most of his adult life (Fig. 1). In school
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he learned the principles of Newtonian physics. 1,7,26 In the 1790s he published several essays
on the subject, including “Contributions to Optics and On Colored Shadows”.6 These works
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were largely ignored by the academic community, but Goethe persisted in his investigations.
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He grew to resent the influence Newton had on natural philosophy and rejected Newton’s
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attempt to reduce color to mathematics and mechanics. Goethe saw the act of splitting
epigram by comparing it to dividing God into three. 26p260 Goethe’s enmity towards the long-
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mathematical treatment of light that he insinuated his research may have been fraudulent and
When completed, Theory of Color was over 1,000 pages and consisted of three parts:
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didactic, polemical and historical.5,6,A,B The book included 16 color plates, some of which
became icons of future aesthetic movements. His major notion about color was that it was a
mixture of the polarities of lightness and darkness (Fig 2). In describing how polarities create
color, light and dark must interact at some distance from the eye. Then from that point of
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interaction light travels across a turbid medium to reach the eye (Fig 3). (He considered the
prism a turbid medium.) The interaction of polarities with an infinite number of turbidities
creates an infinite number of colors. The didactic session was filled with demonstrations
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described as experiments whose outcomes reflected Goethe’s understanding of nature. He
proposed a color wheel and arranged colors in their “natural order,” including the idea of
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complementary colors. Goethe went on at length about the innate or temperamental
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overtones of color: red was beautiful, orange was noble, etc. Definitions were evasive or
circular. Color, for example, “is the law-like nature with respect to the senses of the eye.”22p173
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No theory in the formal sense of the word was ever offered; rather his intuitive sense of color
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was the ultimate contribution.2,7,8,20 The impact of the book in the decades following its
publication is hard to measure, but the work carried the prestige of Goethe.
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Since the time of antiquity when Greek painters argued over the minimum number of
primary colors needed to generate all colors, the subject of color has spawned controversy. Its
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relationship with light was equally baffling. By 1810, some prominent natural philosophers had
rejected the corpuscular theory of light proposed by Newton, favoring instead the undulatory
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or wave theory as advocated by such luminaries as Robert Hooke, Christian Huygens, and
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Leonhard Euler. The influence that Newton exerted over the scientific community during the
18th and early 19th centuries, however, cannot be overstated.16,19 The Principia and Opticks
inspired confidence in inductive reasoning and mathematical verification. They also placed a
transformative period of natural philosophy better than Newton’s investigation of light with
prisms. After showing that sunlight could be broken down into a color spectrum then
reconstituted with a second prism to white light, he then studied the colored rings that formed
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between infinitesimally thinly separated layers of transparent glass. Newton discovered that
the pattern of colored rings was mathematically predictable. These two experiments generated
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a range of interpretations. A century would pass before fresh ideas advanced the conversation.
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In opening years of the 19th century, Thomas Young (1773 – 1829) presented persuasive
evidence that light was a wave and individual components of that wave could form the color
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rings described by Newton.18,E,F He gleaned these insights first from a water ripple tank
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experiment where the constructive and destructive pattern of intersecting waves could be seen
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analogous to light waves forming interference patterns. He then took the analogy further by
proposing that different wavelengths within white light could explain the color rings observed
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between closely approximated layers of glass through the processes of refraction and
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reflection. Although analogy and geometric models were far from proof of the wave nature of
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light, Young went on to investigate color diffraction patterns created from a thin beam of
sunlight intersecting a thin strip of cardboard to test his hypothesis. Based on these
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light. Light and color was becoming increasingly comprehensible in terms of Newtonian physics,
but natural philosophers less comfortable with math remained skeptical of Young’s handiwork.
But Thomas Young had more to say about color. In 1801, he argued before the Royal
Society that the perception of color was mediated by retinal fibers sensitive to just three colors
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of light.18,F All colors of the spectrum could be perceptive through the relative mixing of just
red, yellow, and blue. Although he would later change the selection of primaries to red, green,
and blue, Young rejected the corpuscular theory since it called for a prohibitively large number
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of different retinal receptors. If biological systems were designed for physiologic efficiency,
then the absorption of vibrating light waves was a model of parsimony. Young’s theory also
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highlighted the critical difference in the nature of light and the constitution of man: color is a
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sensory perception. When published the next year, Young’s synthesis of ideas was a creative
masterpiece, explained in brevity,18 but the trichromatic theory still stymied natural
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philosophers because they did not fully comprehend the intricacies of color mixing. 16
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For nearly 50 years, various experiments with color mixing using color wheels, prisms
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and lenses, and blended pigments were prone to misinterpretation. At the heart of this
problem was a failure to understand the difference in adding color lights and color pigments.
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Königsberg for four years. Educated as a physician, he was a self-taught physicist in the modern
sense of the word. 4,12 Since his youth, Helmholtz had been interested in the interactions of
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from the premier medical school in Prussia in 1842 (Friedrich-Wilhelm-Institute, Berlin), and
trained under the leading physiologist in Europe, Johannes Müller (1801 – 1858). While in
Berlin, Helmholtz worked with a group of young physicians who challenged the widely held
belief that the processes of living systems could not be explained by the same laws that govern
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the inorganic universe. 15 This notion was embodied in the term vitalism that viewed chemical
and physical laws incapable of understanding life.11 Although Müller was a passionate
experimenter and skilled anatomist, he never renounced vitalism. Helmholtz, his prize student,
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was among its most ardent dissenters. In 1847, Helmholtz initiated a major assault on vitalism
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conservation of energy). 14
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After accepting a teaching position at the University of Königsberg, he studied nerve
impulses, and soon determined the speed of nerve transmission between 24 and 29 meters per
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second. The implications of this research were far reaching because it meant that electrical or
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chemical activities were involved with nerve transmission, and thus the process was governed
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by natural laws. His colleagues in Berlin saw the research as a lethal blow to vitalism.
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Barely a decade out of medical school, Helmholtz was on a trajectory to become the
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preeminent physiologist (if not scientist) of his generation. In 1850, he became intrigued by
Young’s three-color hypothesis of color perception and then initiated a series of experiments to
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test it. In his first paper on color mixing, Helmholtz made a clear distinction between colored
lights (additive mixing) and colored pigments (subtractive mixing). Since pigments absorb light,
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when mixed they reflect less incident light. On the other hand, when colored lights of different
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frequencies are combined, they alter perceived color by other mechanisms, referred to as
additive. When Helmholtz completed his first mixing experiments, he concluded five primary
colors existed, not three. He thus initially disagreed with Young’s model. At roughly this time,
Helmholtz decided that Goethe would be the centerpiece of the German Society lecture.
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5. The Lecture
The 1853 lecture focused its criticism on the celebrated poet’s idea of color. Helmholtz
complimented Goethe on his literary skills. He praised the work he had done describing a faint
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suture in the upper jaw, perhaps the vestigial remnant of an intermaxillary bone, and his
contributions to the doctrine of plant metamorphosis,25 but these tributes were overshadowed
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by faulting Goethe for his ignorance of available knowledge of light and color. He recounted
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how Goethe was dumbfounded when he first tried to visualize the colored spectrum by looking
through a borrowed glass prism and saw nothing but a white wall. A tutorial on basic optics
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was kept short, as Helmholtz moved to the crux of his criticism. Goethe’s theory of color was
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not a theory at all because it presented no hypothesis to test. The poet held that “observed
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facts shall be so arranged that one explains the other, and that thus we may attain an insight in
their connection without ever having to trust to anything but our senses.” 25p15 Color for
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Goethe was understood instinctively; it was a perception, not a quality or quantity of light.
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Helmholtz argues that a legitimate theory must withstand scrutiny and rigorous testing, which
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century later.17 Popper would have called Goethe’s theory of color pseudoscience because it
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could never be refuted by empirical means. In other words, Goethe’s theory was supported by
6. Why Goethe?
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We don’t know why Helmholtz chose to use The Theory of Color as a counter point to
the role that Newtonian physics should play in biologic research, but there are several
possibilities. Goethe’s treatise is filled with misleading comments about physics, the acquisition
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of knowledge, and the study of human perception. Maybe Helmholtz just wanted to set the
record straight. In discussing the role of mathematics, for example, Goethe writes:
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The theory of colours, in particular, has suffered much, and its progress has been incalculably
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retarded by having been mixed up with optics generally, a science which cannot dispense with
mathematics; whereas the theory of colours, in strictness, may be investigated quite
independently of optics. 5¶725
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Such thinking likely made Helmholtz bristle. But was there more than just correcting intellectual
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misguidance?
At the time he received the invitation for the German Society lecture, Helmholtz was
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engaged in color research. It is possible that this experience showed him how many prominent
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Johannes Müller, for instance, had praised Goethe’s work writing: “I, for one, have no
Theory.”5preface Favorable opinions were also offered by such notables as Hegel, Schelling and
Steffens.5preface Could Helmholtz have feared that aesthetic opinion might someday trump the
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scientific method? Was there concern that theories might become invulnerable to evidentiary
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In 1855, James Clerk Maxwell made his mark on color theory with a study that required
subjects to match mixtures of three colored lights with shades of gray.10,13,21 He was able to
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quantify ratios of colors to match other colors, eventually concluding that three colors could be
used to create any other. It reinforced the idea that the human eye needed just three colored
rays to perceive color from whatever assortment of undulations might exist within white light.
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Helmholtz continued his investigations into color mixing after the Goethe lecture. He
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learned of Maxwell’s work and referenced it in his 1860 edition of Handbook of Physiologic
Optics. 24 His color mixing experiments became more technically sophisticated and eventually
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confirmed the findings of Young and Maxwell. Helmholtz added another insight to Young’s
theory, however. After plotting the absorption curves of red, green, and blue, he opined that
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each of three retinal receptors receive input proportional to their spectral absorption
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sensitivities.23 It is this sensory amalgamation that determines perceived color.
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8. Epilogue
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The study of light and color embodies an aphorism attributed to Carl Sagan that
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“science is never finished.” C In 1905, when the scientific community was ready to fully
embrace the wave theory, Albert Einstein (1876 – 1954) interpreted the results of his
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photoelectric experiment as demonstrating that light can also behave as a particle. Fifty years
recording techniques, researchers identify three mutually exclusive classes of cones with
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progressively embraced in the same physical laws that govern the rest of the universe., but in
the late 19th and early 20th century, the moral and symbolic value that Goethe placed on colors
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gained popularity among painters and other artisans. Artists were drawn to his opinions about
complementary and harmonious colors, and they likely influenced such notable painters as
Mondrian and Kandinsky.14p124 In the realms of philosophy and cognitive science debate
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continues about the nature of "qualia," or the individual instances of subjective, conscious
experience. D Even today, there are those who sympathize with the notion that one's subjective
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experiences cannot be reduced to electromagnetic waves or to particles in motion. As with
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Goethe’s “sense of color,” the notion of ‘qualia’ does not lend itself to empirical testing.
The controversy surrounding Helmholtz’s 1853 lecture has faded with time but is still
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remembered as a call to arms during the nascent era of biology when a minority of educated
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elite saw science as establishing causal associations through hypothesis-driven
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experimentation. 8,12 Ironically, 40 years after the German Society lecture, Helmholtz was
invited to speak to the general assembly of the Goethe Society in Weimer. The title of the talk
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was “Goethe’s Presentiments about Future Ideas in Natural Science.” 14p203 The 71-year-old
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Helmholtz spoke deferentially about the poet, emphasizing how both he and Goethe shared the
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same desire to understand nature (Fig. 4). Although their methods may have differed, both
Goethe, his theory about color, and the German Society of Königsberg were initially
investigated through PubMed, Google, and Google Scholar. Goethe’s Theory of Colours was
read in translation both in hard copy and online versions. 5,A,B Various combinations of search
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terms (Goethe, Helmholtz, color, theory of color, color perception, trichromatic theory, color
mixing, theory of light and the Goethe Society) were employed to find additional relevant
material. The book holdings on Johann von Goethe and Hermann von Helmholtz at the main
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and medical school libraries of University of South Florida were manually studied for related
material.
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10. Disclosures
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There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
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the Royal Society, 1804.
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Acknowledgement: Don B. Smith, MD critically reviewed the paper and provided valuable
Legends
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Fig. 1- Johann Wolfgang Goethe roughly age 40. Print by Christian Friedrich Traugott Uhlemann.
Fig. 2 – Plate 1 in The Theory of Color. This engraving was used to illustrate how light and dark
are the basis of all color. Its interpretative correspondence with the text is loose. Public
Fig. 3 – Plate 4 in The Theory of Color. When Goethe looked through a glass prism at a white
wall for the first time and saw a white wall and knew immediately that Newton’s theory was
wrong. He intuitively understood that colors arise from the mixing of light and dark as its
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travels through turbid media such as a prism. Public domain, Gutenberg Library.
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Fig. 4 – Herman von Helmholtz about a year after the Goethe Society lecture. Courtesy of
British Library.
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