14 Abstract Proefschrift

The central topic in this dissertation is the description and application of a method that can be used to investigate colour as a qualitative phenomenon, without reducing the wealth of meanings that can be experienced in the world of colour. This method should provide space for the experience of colour, but also for a conceptual representation that gives human thinking access to this wealth of meanings. In their colour inquiries, the German writer/poet, natural scientist and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and the French phenomenological philosopher Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) used a method of investigation that meets the requirements just mentioned. By comparing their work on colour and the method of investigation they described and applied in their inquiries, the differences and correspondences between the two writers become more clear. As a result of this comparison, a phenomenological method to investigate colour is established that unites essential traits in the methods described by Goethe and Merleau-Ponty. Consequently, this method is applied in a phenomenological inquiry into the wealth of meanings that can be experienced in the colour blue (Blue as an example, it could have been another colour). As a result, the dynamic principle of the colour is described that manifests itself in the wealth of meanings that can be experienced in this colour. In chapter one, Goethes method of investigation is examined, and the application of this method in his theory of colours, Zur Farbenlehre (1810). The first step in Goethes method is the sensory perception of all the different aspects of the phenomenon that appear in its natural connections with other phenomena. In the second step, the investigator enters into a dialogue with all this aspects. In this dialogue, the investigator penetrates into the phenomenon by being penetrated by it. In the third step, this mutual penetration becomes so strong, that the phenomenon can ‘make itself known’ in the consciousness of the investigator: the dynamic principle (Goethe: ‘Urphänomen’) that manifests itself in all the observed aspects of the phenomenon, can reveal itself. In Goethes Zur Farbenlehre, step one and two of his method are not strictly separated (section 1,2 and 3 of Zur Farbenlehre). In this steps he observes, and at the same time he keeps the dialogue going between himself and the world of colours. He doesn’t interfere with theories or explanations. In the third step, he discovers the ‘Urphänomen’ of the world of colours, and develops his colour wheel out of this dynamic principle (section 4 and 5). For Goethe, the ‘Urphanomen’ of the world of colour manifests itself in the wealth of meanings that can be experienced in all objective ànd subjective colour phenomena. So in part 6 of Zur Farbenlehre, he examines the subjective colour phenomena: the effect of the different colours in the colour wheel, and the effect of colour (combinations) in art (painting). In chapter two, the reception of Goethes Zur Farbenlehre is examined. In Goethes time, the reaction of most physicists was negative. Nowadays, prominent physicists like Von Weiszäcker, Heisenberg and Bortoft suggests that in modern physics, the method Goethe used in Zur Farbenlehre and in all his scientific work is worth considering. The reactions of philosophers and artists was generally positive. Goethes ideas about the direct, primordial effect of colour have been quiet important for the emancipation of colour as an independent means of artistic expression in modern art. In chapter three, Merleau-Pontys phenomenological method of investigation and the results of his colour research is examined. The phenomenological reduction is the first phase in its method, in which the investigator returns to the primordial experience of the phenomenon. In this primordial experience, the wealth of meanings that is present in the phenomenon can be experienced. In the second phase, the eidetical reduction, the investigator tries to consciously see and describe the dynamic principle (way of being)