Wonders of Development in Plants, People, & Projects

by Jan Diek van Mansvelt; Adonis Press (2022), 127 pages; available from SteinerBooks

review by Craig Holdrege

The topic of development could hardly be more important today. Don’t we see everywhere the need for change? But just doing things differently doesn’t mean that we will do things better. One predicament of our modern ways of thinking and acting has to do with the attitude of identifying “the problems” to which we want to find “the solutions” so that we can leave the problems behind. We isolate a particular state of things out of a complex web of relations and strive to make, as if from the outside, changes. This is not a developmental approach.

When we consider development, we enter the realm of time and transformation. This means to look at processes and, importantly, to consider ourselves as part of the processes. When we begin this journey, we soon realize the deeply intertwined nature of things. This can be almost overwhelming: How is it possible to navigate in such a complex and fluid world? In experiencing this uncertainty, we can find motivation to develop new capacities. The question arises: Are there guides?

One such guide can be developmental processes in the world around us. In his new book, Dutch biologist Jan Diek van Mansvelt wants to facilitate the process of learning from development. The book is the fruit of many years of studying and teaching about living processes. At the end of the book, Van Mansvelt describes what this undertaking has meant for him:

It gave me an awareness of the intrinsic, essential kinship of human beings and nature, and enthusiasm for further development of my human capacities, and in particular, a sense of responsibility for what I contribute out of these abilities to the future development of society and nature. And this includes nature in the broadest sense: agriculture, landscaping, conservation, care for the environment, food, and health.

This statement makes clear that van Mansvelt’s intent is not only that the reader learn about the many wonders of development that he describes. The book wants to be an aid to developing one’s own living sensibilities. It is elegantly designed and contains many color photographs and illustrations that accompany and enhance the text, and is a joy to take in hand. It is meant for the general reader and does not presuppose any technical knowledge.

As the subtitle suggests, the book has three sections. The first, on plants, spans over half of the book. In a easily accessible manner, van Mansvelt leads the reader through the development of flowering plants as it presents itself in seeds, germination, growth of stem and foliage leaves, flowers, and fruits. His emphasis is always on transformation, and the photographs and illustrations are a great help in picturing the processes. Working within the Goethean tradition, van Mansvelt’s concern is with “entering into the language of the phenomena themselves and allowing them to speak to us, and then allowing ourselves to be surprised by ideas or unexpected insights.” This presentation of plant transformation leads into a dynamic world; it helps one to move out of static conceptions.

The book then shifts to a consideration of various facets of human development—embryonic and early childhood development, biography, and even a foray into the question of life after death. Van Mansvelt uses the learning gained by studying plants as a kind of lens that, on the one hand, shows the differences between plant and human developmental processes and, on the other hand, reveals intriguing aspects of transformative processes in humans.

The final part of the book deals with the unfolding of ideas and plans that become a project in human social life. Van Mansvelt describes project-creation as a differentiated, eight-phase process. He gives a picture of how a project can be consciously and productively guided without suggesting that there is a recipe for how to do things. The flexibility of mind one can gain through the study of organic development provides a basis for dealing with the less predictable and open-ended nature of human projects.

This book is written with a deep love for nature’s creations, and wants to stimulate a way of human knowing and acting that grows in its wisdom. We encounter developmental processes as wonderful teachers, and as a field of fruitful ongoing exploration in human activity.

Craig Holdrege, PhD (craig@natureinstitute.org) is The Nature Institute’s director and senior researcher, and spearheaded its founding in 1998 (see: nwww.natureinstitute.org). He is deeply interested in the interconnected nature of things and how we can understand life in truly living ways as a basis for responsible human action. His passion is to develop what Goethe called “delicate empiricism” — an approach that learns from nature how to understand nature and is infused with a cautious and critical awareness of how intentions and habits of mind affect human understanding.