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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 5461 through 5470 of 6551

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326. The Origins of Natural Science: Lecture IV 27 Dec 1922, Dornach
Translated by Maria St. Goar, Norman MacBeth

One must take these concepts in the way they are understood by the simplest person, because there they are always clear. They become unclear not in outward experience, but in the heads of metaphysicians and philosophers.
On the other hand, one must realize that at the outset of this whole stream of development, feelings such as Berkeley's were understandable. He shuddered at what he thought would come from a infinitesimal study of nature and had to do with the process of birth but a study of all dying aspects in nature.
Since life cannot exist without death and all living things must die, we must look at and understand all that is dead in the world. A science of the inanimate, the dead, had to arise. It was absolutely necessary.
326. The Origins of Natural Science: Lecture V 28 Dec 1922, Dornach
Translated by Maria St. Goar, Norman MacBeth

We see it slowly finding its way into the whole of modern thought and we see science developing under this condition of uncertainty. This state of affairs must be clearly recognized. A few examples can illustrate what we are dealing with .
This leads to comprehension of how the organism lives. But in examining the organism itself, in understanding it through the interrelationship of its parts, we find no equivalent for the fact that the organism must die.
From 1675–1689 Locke worked with many interruptions at his main work. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690. Originally he had planned a critical presentation of the already recognized teaching of primary and secondary sense characteristics, but then it grew to a perception theory or world view.
326. The Origins of Natural Science: Lecture VI 01 Jan 1923, Dornach
Translated by Maria St. Goar, Norman MacBeth

57 And again it was not understood. I tried to show how man's soul—spirit organization does indeed indwell and permeate the physical and etheric body during the waking state, but still remains inwardly independent.
Through the peculiar character of this kind of thinking about nature, all understanding was gradually lost. This is what Goethe revolted against, though he was unable to express his insights in clearly formulated sentences.
The scientist of modern times needed a dehumanized nature, just as chemist needs deoxygenized hydrogen and therefore has to split water into its two components. The point is to understand that we must not constantly fall into the error of looking to science for an understanding of man.
326. The Origins of Natural Science: Lecture VII 02 Jan 1923, Dornach
Translated by Maria St. Goar, Norman MacBeth

These processes, however, were not always completely obliterated. Under the influence of the mood prevailing under the scientific world conception, people today no longer have any idea of how different man's inner awareness was in the past.
I shall no longer be able to distinguish whether the body moves in one or the wall behind it in the opposite direction. I can basically make all the calculations under either one or the other assumption. [IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW] I lose the ability to understand a movement inwardly if I do not partake of it with my own experience.
Such is the essence of the Theory of Relativity,68 which is trying to pull the ground from under Newtonism. This theory of relativity is a natural historical result. It cannot help but exist today.
303. Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education: Children from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Years I 02 Jan 1922, Dornach
Translated by Roland Everett

Children, however, cannot always wait until they are forty before understanding what they have been told at the age of eight, and this is the reason they have an inner longing for authority.
We must look at these two systems if we want to understand the nature of tiredness in children, which bears a completely different character according to whether it emanates from the head or from the limbs and metabolism.
Now, toward the twelfth year, the situation quickly changes; the muscles begin to serve the mechanics and dynamics of the skeletal organization. You will have gained a deep understanding of how human nature develops once you can see and understand what happens within children before the twelfth year—how the muscles simply carry the bones along and later begin to relate directly to the skeleton and, in doing so, relate also to the external world.
303. Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education: Children from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Years II 03 Jan 1922, Dornach
Translated by Roland Everett

Without this they will fail, as though they lacked the most fundamental artistic and scientific understanding. Therefore, the first prerequisite of Waldorf teachers is reverence for the soul and spiritual potential that children bring with them into the world.
During their twenties, young people become aware of how the experiences of their school years first went underground, as it were, while they trained for a trade or profession, only to surface again in form of capacities, such as being able to handle certain situations or fit oneself into life in the right way.
On the other hand, if, for example, a teacher shows continued interest and understanding for the doleful moods of a melancholic child, this attitude will finally bring about a beneficial and healing effect.
303. Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education: Adolescents after the Fourteenth Year 04 Jan 1922, Dornach
Translated by Roland Everett

You must act the part of an expert who really understands why things have come to be as they are. From now on, you will accomplish nothing by way of authority.
Only when we see human love in this light can we understand it correctly, and then we can also understand its task in the world. What really happens in human beings during the process of sexual maturity?
It is revered as a sacred memory, to the extent that, fundamentally, an Asian cannot really understand a European, and vice versa. Those who are under illusions about this fact will delude themselves about the world’s greatest historical secret in our time.
303. Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education: Aesthetic Education 05 Jan 1922, Dornach
Translated by Roland Everett

In the case of tabes dorsalis, the appropriate nerve (I will call it a sensory nerve) would, under normal circumstances, make a movement sense-perceptible, but it is not functioning, and consequently the movement cannot be performed, because movement can take place only when such a process is perceived consciously.
If you take what I have said as a whole, however, especially with regard to the interrupt switch, you will be able to understand all the various experiments that involve cutting nerves. [IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW] Question: How can educators best respond to requests, coming from children between five and a half and seven, for various activities?
303. Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education: Physical Education 06 Jan 1922, Dornach
Translated by Roland Everett

Consider how many secrets have been drawn from nature through research under the microscope or by dissecting various lower animals to investigate the functions of their parts.
Needless to say, such a method may be perfectly justified under certain conditions, but it thoroughly undermines one’s healthy instincts. An instinct for what is wholesome or damaging to health is an essential quality for any teacher worthy of the calling.
People must be able to experience a connection with the outer world. It is true that not one human organ can be understood when considered only in a state of rest. We must relate it to the inherent activities and movements of its functions; then we can understand an organ even in a state of rest.
303. Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education: Religious & Moral Education 07 Jan 1922, Dornach
Translated by Roland Everett

This twofold way of experiencing and judging our human task on earth colors all the many divisions with regard to moral and religious issues. If we wish to understand the ethical and moral aims of humankind, we must first free ourselves from prejudice. Then we need to make an honest effort to understand the various diverging philosophies of life.
At such a moment, people feel how the sensory world surrounds them. They come to understand natural laws and see themselves within the sensory realm. They begin to understand that whatever they discover through the senses alone will never make them fully human.
Gratitude itself includes a certain quality of knowing, since we must understand why we are grateful. It is characteristic of this feeling that it is closely related to our powers of comprehension.

Results 5461 through 5470 of 6551

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