Color Theory Wars 1: The Poet (Goethe) vs the Physicist (Newton)

In Zur Farbenlehre  (A Theory of Colours, or, A Doctrine of Colours) of 1810, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe worked to dismiss Newton’s findings of the nature of spectral light and sought a return to Aristotelian views of color. Why no love for Newton? This episode reviews Goethe's theories and how he introduced psychology to the understanding of human color perception.

“A great mathematician [Newton] was possessed with an entirely
false notion on the physical origin of colour….” - Excerpt from A Theory of Colours.

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