George Adams

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George Adams, actually George Adams von Kaufmann[1] (* February 8, 1894 in Marijampolė, Russian Empire;[1] † March 30, 1963 in Birmingham) was a British mathematician and anthroposophist.

Biography

George Adams was born the son of the Australian-German industrialist Georg von Kaufmann and the Englishwoman Mary Adams in Mariampolé in Lithuania, which was then Russian. Between 1912 and 1918, he studied chemistry (B.A.) and mathematics (M.A.) at the University of Cambridge, where he intensively explored the works of Whitehead and Russell. When he asked Russell how one could arrive at useful approaches in theoretical physics without the atomic hypothesis, he advised him to study projective geometry.[2]

In 1914, he became acquainted with Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy. In 1916 he joined the "Emerson" group of the Anthroposophical Society in London.[3] Adams first met Steiner in Dornach in 1919.[1] He had come into contact with him regarding an English translation of Steiner's book "Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage".[3] Adams acted as interpreter at Steiner's lectures in England[4] and later translated numerous works by Steiner into English, e.g. Steiner's Agricultural Course.[5] In 1920 he attended the opening of the first Goetheanum with his wife Mary and also witnessed its destruction on New Year's Eve 1922/1923.[1] He was particularly interested in Steiner's social threefolding.

His own work dealt with questions of Goethean science and projective geometry (also as a basis for understanding the etheric), partly together with his colleague Olive Whicher, who met him in 1935.[6] Elisabeth Vreede supported his mathematical approaches. In 1933 he published his essay on etheric space (Raum und Gegenraum) for the first time in the journal Natura, published by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum under Ita Wegman's direction, and soon afterwards also in English.[1] His approach was to present the idea of space and counterspace on the basis of modern projective geometry in a spiritual scientific light.[1] Louis Locher-Ernst published a similar approach a few years later in a more axiomatic and mathematical form.[1]

In 1932, Adams was elected a member of the London Mathematical Society.[1] In 1935, Wegman and Vreeda were expelled from the Anthroposophical Society, and others, including Adams, were also forced to leave the Society.[7] At the end of the 1940s, he rejoined it of his own volition.[8]

In 1939, he volunteered for military service in London and was initially deployed as an interpreter in a prison camp, but was released after six months. After his German connections were critically examined, he called himself George Adams from 1940. Until the end of the war, he continued to serve as an interceptor for BBC monitoring and in air-raid protection.

In 1947, he searched for the projective counterpart to the (visually) infinitely distant plane of Euclidean space, the infinitely inner center of polar Euclidean space (Locher's "absolute center") in the plant world. Adams had the idea that there could not only be one such point, but that such a point must be located at the germination point of every bud. This idea was further elaborated together with Whicher, taking into account the lemniscate-like interaction of space and counterspace. Two books were published in English in 1949 and 1952 and an expanded version in German in 1960 under the title "Die Pflanze in Raum und Gegenraum".[9]

In 1947, at the instigation of his friends Geuter and Michael Wilson, Adams moved to the English Midlands.[8] Wilson and Adams founded the Goethean Science Foundation to initiate scientific research.[8]

In 1961, he was involved in the establishment of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics in Herrischried in the Black Forest,[10] where he was associated with Alexander Leroi, Theodor Schwenk, Hanns Voith and John Wilkes.

He died in 1963 at the home of a family friend of Lothar Marx in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham, almost four years after suffering a heart attack (1959).[11]

Works

Mathematical and scientific

  • Adams, George (1931). "Synthetische Geometrie, Goethesche Metamorphosenlehre und Mathematische Physik". Mathesis, Beiträge zur Weiterbildung der Mathematik und verwandter Gebiete im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft (in Deutsch): 119–173.
  • Adams, George (1964). Von dem ätherischen Raume (PDF). Studien und Versuche (in Deutsch). 6. Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben. ISBN 3-7725-0036-6.
    • originally published as Adams, George (1933). "Von dem ätherischen Raum". Natura (in Deutsch). 6 (5/6).
  • Adams, George (1933). Space and the light of the creation: a new essay in cosmic theory (PDF). London: Published by the author.
  • Adams, George (1965). Strahlende Weltgestaltung: synthetische Geometrie in geisteswissenschaftlicher Beleuchtung : zugleich als Vorarbeit gedacht für eine geistmässige mathematische Physik (in Deutsch) (2. Aufl. ed.). Dornach: Philosophisch-Antroposophischer Verl. ISBN 3-7235-0002-1.
  • Adams, George (1978). Physical and Ethereal Spaces. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 978-0-85440-328-8.
  • Adams, George; Eberhart, Stephen; Unger, Georg (1977). Universal forces in mechanics. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 978-0-85440-325-7.

With Olive Whicher

  • Adams, George; Whicher, Olive (1982). The plant between sun and earth, and the science of physical and ethereal spaces (1st Shambhala ed.). Boulder, [New York]: Shambhala ; Distributed in the U.S. by Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-71231-4.
  • Adams, George; Whicher, Olive (1949). The living plant and the science of physical and ethereal spaces; a study of the metamorphosis of plants in the light of modern geometry and morphology. Clent, Worcestershire: Goethean Science Foundation.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Olive Whicher (1964). Arnold Freeman, Charles Waterman (eds.). "The life and work of George Adams : an introduction" (PDF). The Golden Blade: 27–.
  2. ↑ Ziegler, Renatus. "George Adams Kaufmann". Stiftung Kulturimpuls. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 George Adams (1980). "Rudolf Steiner in England". In M. J. Krück von Poturzyn (ed.). Wir erlebten Rudolf Steiner; Erinnerungen seiner Schüler (in Deutsch) (6 ed.). Stuttgart: Verlag freies Geistesleben. pp. 12–. ISBN 3-7725-0541-4.
  4. ↑ Paull, John (2011). "RUDOLF STEINER AND THE OXFORD CONFERENCE: THE BIRTH OF WALDORF EDUCATION IN BRITAIN". European Journal of Educational Studies. 3 (1): 53–66.
  5. ↑ Paull, John (2011-07-01). "The Secrets of Koberwitz: The Diffusion of Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course and the Founding of Biodynamic Agriculture". Journal of Social Research & Policy. 2: 19–29.
  6. ↑ Olive Whicher (1989). "I. ein individueller Weg". Sonnen-Raum; Ein Übungsweg zum Verständnis des Lebendigen (in Deutsch). Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum. p. 21. ISBN 3-7235-0472-8. English: Whicher, Olive (1989). Sun space: science at a threshold of spiritual understanding. Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 978-0-85440-726-2.
  7. ↑ Olive Whicher (1964). Arnold Freeman, Charles Waterman (eds.). "The life and work of George Adams : an introduction" (PDF). The Golden Blade: 44.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Olive Whicher (1964). Arnold Freeman, Charles Waterman (eds.). "The life and work of George Adams : an introduction" (PDF). The Golden Blade: 48.
  9. ↑ Biographien und Bibliographien. Mitarbeiter und Mitwirkende der Mathematisch-Astronomischen Sektion am Goetheanum (PDF). Mathematisch-Astronomische Blätter Neue Folge (in Deutsch). 24. Renatus Ziegler, Mathematisch-Astronomische Sektion der Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft am Goetheanum (eds.). Dornach, Schweiz: Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer VERLAG AM GOETHEANUM. 2001. ISBN 3-7235-1112-0. Retrieved 2024-02-28.CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ↑ Olive Whicher (1964). Arnold Freeman, Charles Waterman (eds.). "The life and work of George Adams : an introduction" (PDF). The Golden Blade: 49.
  11. ↑ Olive Whicher (1964). Arnold Freeman, Charles Waterman (eds.). "The life and work of George Adams : an introduction" (PDF). The Golden Blade: 52.
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