The German philosopher Edmund Husserl critiqued natural science for contributing to an 'ontological reversal', meaning that abstract mathematical models of phenomena are taken as more real than phenomena themselves, as they appear in our everyday experience. Nowadays many scientists have abandoned the correspondence theory of truth concerning their theoretical models, but the effects of the 'ontological reversal' may still linger among lay people. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate whether this 'reversal' is present in the thinking and reasoning of pre-service science teachers. In the project upon which the paper is based, twenty-three student teachers were introduced to Goethe's theory of colour. They were then placed in small groups and given the task of discussing whether Goethe's theory is scientific or not. The group discussions were recorded and analysed in terms of thematic contents. The ontological reversal seemed to be present as an implicit 'figure of thought' in some of the statements made in the discussions. The educational consequences of this kind of thinking for science teaching are discussed.
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Bo Dahlin (2003) studied this question.