Of Light & Shadow

Goethe's theory of light always involves shadow as we always see the interplay of the two no matter the light source. This clip shows why Goethe was onto something profound without question.

Light spectrum, from Theory of Colours – Goethe observed that colour arises at the edges, and the spectrum occurs where these coloured edges overlap.

Theory of Colours (German: Zur Farbenlehre [tsuːɐ̯ ˈfaʁbn̩ˌleːʁə]) is a book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about the poet's views on the nature of colours and how these are perceived by humans. It was published in German in 1810 and in English in 1840.[1] The book contains detailed descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration.

Goethe's book provides a catalogue of how colour is perceived in a wide variety of circumstances, and considers Isaac Newton's observations to be special cases.[2] Unlike Newton, Goethe's concern was not so much with the analytic treatment of colour, as with the qualities of how phenomena are perceived. Philosophers have come to understand the distinction between the optical spectrum, as observed by Newton, and the phenomenon of human colour perception as presented by Goethe—a subject analyzed at length by Wittgenstein in his comments on Goethe's theory in Remarks on Colour.

Something profound indeed.