Based on years of phenomenological research, doctors, scientists, and teachers present dynamic pictures of the circulatory system that give perspective to the prevailing mechanistic ideas that dominate science and medicine today. People today are usually taught that the heart is only a pump. This book transcends this narrow view and restores life to our understanding of the heart and circulation.

These essays, inspired by a Goethean view of nature and science, attempt to portray rather than explain. Some give precise descriptions of physiological processes, while others portray the heart and circulation within broader developmental and evolutionary contexts.

Craig Holdrege is the director of The Nature Institute in Harlemville, New York. The institute is dedicated to research and educational activities that apply a Goethean, phenomena-centered method.www.natureinstitute.org

Contents
1. The Heart: A Pulsing and Perceptive Center
by Craig Holdrege
2. The Polarity of Center and Periphery in the Circulatory System
by Heinrich Brettschneider
3. The Physiology of Circulation: A Reappraisal
by Hermann Lauboeck
4. A Dynamic Morphology of the Cardiovascular System
by Wolfgang Schad
5. Patterns in the Evolution of the Heart and Circulatory System
by Christiane Liesche
6. The Embryonic Development of the Cardiovascular System
by Matthias Woernle with a Preface by Heinrich Brettschneider

Appendix A: Heart Anatomy
Appendix B: The Hydraulic Ram
About the Authors