Aurora and Centaur
Reality and Description in the Age of Technology
by Laura Borghi, M.D. and Daniele Nani, M.D.
Publication date 29th May 2026.
Our era is characterised by enormous technological developments. Only a thorough analysis of current scientific thinking will be able to show which aspects of it will be beneficial for future civilisation. The humanities and natural sciences must engage with each other in order to regain access to the reality of a world that today, under the demands of progress in the ‘positive sciences’, has been reduced to mere linguistic descriptions, largely in the form of algorithms.
Aurora and Centaur endeavours to reconstruct the epistemology of Goethe’s world view, as elaborated by Rudolf Steiner, in order to combine the rigour of the positive sciences with the creativity typical of the arts. In doing so, Steiner paved the way for the development of a new form of science that is capable of grasping different levels of natural being, including life itself, based on the free activity of the experiencing subject.
“With its chronic replicability problem, John P. A. Ioannidis’s famous paper ‘Why most published research findings are false’, and books with titles like Why So Much of Science Is Wrong (Barrie Condon), materialist science is clearly experiencing a possibly terminal existential crisis. Drawing on the neglected scientific studies of Goethe and Rudolf Steiner, this important paradigm-busting book presents a path towards a properly founded holistic science that transcends the intrinsic limitations of materialism and narrow scientific positivism. A must-read for all open-minded scientists, and philosophers and sociologists of science.”
Richard House Ph.D., co-author of Beyond Mainstream Medicine and editor of Humanising Science and Medicine: Critical Paradigmatic Conversations
About the authors
Laura Borghi is a physician and specialist in biochemistry and clinical chemistry. She collaborated with Weleda Italia as a consultant and scientific director.
Daniele Nani is a physician and specialist in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. He has published numerous works of both scientific and philosophical content along the lines of epistemology. They are both founding members of Imago Proxima Centauri, a non-profit medical association with the aim of promoting and safeguarding the freedom and autonomy of cultural life, particularly in the fields of health and medicine, following the principles of anthroposophical spiritual science as developed by Rudolf Steiner. They have medical practices in Milan.
Table of Contents
Preface 7
Proem 9
Explanation of the title 11
Thought and Language, Subject and Object 13
Quantum Physics and the Measurements of the Invisible 25
The Atom and the Rose: the Living Being as an Abstract Multiplicity 32
Interlude – The Illusion of Technology 41
The Meaning of Knowledge 43
Preliminary matters 43
From the universal to the individual 55
Annotation on Goethe’s Theory of Colours 67
Introduction to a qualitative science of the inorganic 67
Morphology and Morphodynamics 69
Metamorphosis: the world of plants and the essence of life 69
On imagination 77
Metamorphosis and synchronicity: the animal world and consciousness 78
The human world and self-consciousness: The individual law 87
Towards a New Paradigm for the Life Sciences and Medicine 89
The complexity of the human 97
Epilogue 100
Appendix I
Some fundamental epistemological clarifications 103
Postscript to the English edition 108
Appendix II
J.W. Goethe The Metamorphosis of Plants 109
Appendix III
J.W. Goethe The Metamorphosis of Animals 112
Appendix IV
Morphodynamic relationships between the skeleton and four key organs in vertebrates 114
The skeleton as an image 114
Morphodynamic relations of the four principal organs with the general structure of vertebrates 124
Appendix V
Study on leaf metamorphoses 139
Appendix VI
True knowledge of the human being as a foundation for the art of medicine 141
Notes 151
Bibliography 168
About the Authors 174
Index 176
An InterActions title
Paperback
184 pages
20.5 x 14.5 cms, 8 x 5¾ inches
ISBN 978-1-915594-11-2
|
