Goethe was a well-known collector of natural specimens and man-made artifacts. In both cases his method of collecting was based on principles derived from his scientific studies in which he sought to organize phenomena mimetically, according to their observed presence in nature. By grouping phenomena together in such a manner he believed capable of displaying a natural order, one in which the phenomenon itself “spoke”, revealing its relationship to and connection with other phenomena. Drawing on scientific practices of the day, Goethe used taxonomies as the disciplined means of visualizing the underlying interconnectedness of the natural world, employing sequence as a way of offering coherence to the specimen in his collections. The perception he developed through collecting proved to be beneficial to his studies on morphology and physiology.

Goethe’s mode of comprehensive classification posed, however, a serious challenge to traditional forms of scientific expression, as well as to the nomenclature of collecting itself. The emphasis he placed on the interrelationship of phenomena made his collections a framework in which a dynamic, rather than any particular phenomenon was to be studied, creating a display that was constantly in flux and impossible to encapsulate by linguistic means alone. The protracted attention required to view phenomena in the proper fashion was defined by critics as gegenständliches Denken, a thought that does not merely delight in observation, but that actively seeks to connect and elucidate in order to garner true meaning.