16. Goethe as Thinker and Investigator

What we developed methodologically in the previous chapter can now be expressed in terms of the significance of its content. Through our conceptual grasp of something given in the sense world, the “ what” of that which is given to our view first comes to manifestation. We cannot express the content of what we look at, because this content consists only in the “ how” of what we look at, i.e., in the form of its manifestation. Thus, in the concept, we find the “what,” the other content of that which is given in the sense world in an observed form.