Image: NASA, Webb's First Deep Field (NIRCam Image) 

Where do we as modern human beings need Goethe and his way of doing science? If modern physics is right, what is the point of all this? 

 The point of our journey with Goethe is the same as with all human endeavors for understanding reality. These endeavors can take different routes. Physics is a route that paints a certain kind of picture of the reality around us - a physical picture. On this physical route to reality we are being told that what we see, hear, smell, taste and so on, is not to be trusted as a means to an ultimate reality. In the end it can only be reached by a calculative, theorizing intellect. 

 A phenomenological route to reality on the other hand, is exactly interested with that which appears, and how it all is experienced as meaning in our consciousness. Defining all reality with theoretical, mathematical and physical thinking alone is an indication of a hopelessly narrow understanding of human capabilities and modes of being. The question of reality is still an open book – a mystery if you will. Both for physicists and phenomenologists alike. 

So, from here, let us begin our study of rainbows – from a Goethean point of view.