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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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18. Individualism and Philosophy: Appendix I: Excerpt From the Final Chapter of “The Riddles of Philosophy”

(From the opening pages of the last chapter of Rudolf Steiner's Riddles of Philosophy, 1914) Whoever studies the development of philosophical world views up to the present day can discover in the seeking and striving of some thinkers undercurrents that in a certain way do not break through into consciousness but rather live on instinctively. Powers are at work in these undercurrents that determine the direction—and often the form as well—of the ideas of these thinkers; these thinkers do not want to turn their searching spiritual gaze directly upon these powers, however.
If that is not obvious to you, dear reader, and if your understanding shys away from this fact like a skittish horse, then read no further; leave this and every other book on philosophical matters unread; for you lack the necessary ability to grasp a fact without bias and to retain it in thought.”
30. Individualism and Philosophy: Individualism in Philosophy 01 Jan 1899,
Translated by William Lindemann

[ 36 ] One can understand why the human being does this. Sense impressions press in upon him from outside. He sees colors and hears sounds.
[ 66 ] Jakob Böhme and Descartes no longer stood under the influence of Scholasticism. Böhme saw that nowhere in cosmic space was there a place for heaven; he therefore became a mystic.
Through my thinking contemplation I gain the following. During its motion the stone is under the influence of several factors. If it were only under the influence of the propulsion I gave it in throwing it, it would go on forever, in a straight line, in fact, without changing its velocity.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: A Unified View of Nature and the Limits of Knowledge 15 Jul 1893,

Hartmann thus provided proof that it is not the philosophers who lack an understanding of natural science, but conversely the representatives of the latter who lack insight into philosophy.
With such an attitude, however, it is impossible to understand the German classics, because their creations are completely imbued with the philosophical spirit of their time and can only be understood from this.
My organism undergoes a change when something acts from the outside. This change, i.e. a state of my self, my sensation, is what is given to me.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: Goethe's View of Nature 01 Jan 1894,

For him, the question arose: what lives in the infinite abundance of the plant world that unites this diversity into a unified natural kingdom? He first wanted to understand what a plant actually is, and then he hoped to understand why plant nature manifests itself in such an infinite number of forms.
Adaptation is understood to mean the fact that an organism undergoes a change in its vital activity and in its form as a result of influences from the outside world.
Virchow praises this age for the fact that it increasingly understood that natural science could only be understood by studying nature itself: in museums, collections, laboratories and institutes, and that no information about natural processes could be gained from the study rooms of philosophers.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: Goethe's Secret Revelation 01 Aug 1899,

[ 9 ] The largest number of attempts at interpretation undertaken to date can be found in the book "Goethes Märchendichtungen" by Friedrich Meyer von Waldeck (Heidelberg 1879, Carl Wintersche Universitätsbuchhandlung).
A person can impart teachings that he himself has no deep understanding of to another, and this other person can recognize a deep meaning in them. The serpent represents the solid human endeavor, the honest striding along the path of knowledge.
The world stands differently before him who has recognized it than before him who lives without knowledge. The transformation that all things undergo for our spirit when they are illuminated by the light of knowledge is symbolized by the transformation that things undergo through the light of the lamp.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: Goethe Studies Fundamental Ideas 01 Jul 1900,

[ 1 ] One cannot achieve a full understanding of Goethe's inner life, his view of the world and of life, merely by commenting on his works from the outside.
These two languages come from the same primordial being, and man is called to bring about their mutual understanding. This is what is called knowledge. And this and nothing else is sought by those who understand the needs of human nature. Those who do not attain this understanding remain strangers to the things of the outside world. He does not hear the essence of things speaking to him from within.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: Goethe Studies Morals and Christianity 01 Aug 1900,

The following circumstance shows how little understanding there is in the present day for Goethe's ethical views and for an ethic of freedom and individualism in general.
* One of the most interesting facts in German intellectual history is how Schiller, under the influence of Goethe, formed an ethic from Goethe's world view. These ethics arise from an artistic and liberal view of nature.
For in this work, reason is subject to the immutable laws of logic. As there under the power of natural necessity, so here we are under that of the necessity of reason. Freedom seeks a refuge from both.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: Salvaging Goethe's Ideas Concerning Natural Science 06 Jun 1884,

What is the basis of recognition in other areas of intellectual life, the creation of a new era, is not conceded to Goethe in the field of science. Under these conditions, however, the value of Goethe's scientific activity dwindles to nothing. For it must be admitted that a scientific view has not the slightest value if it lacks the principles on which it could rest as a firm foundation.
Completely stripping reality of its randomness and focusing solely on its underlying rational core is his artistic mission, but it is also his scientific mission. "Real life often loses its luster in such a way that it sometimes has to be refreshed with the varnish of fiction" ("Dichtung und Wahrheit", II, 9th book), says Goethe, thereby hinting at his poetic mission.
Only those who fail to recognize these connections can call Goethe's theory of nature unprincipled. However, it has the key to its understanding in Goethe's nature and carries the guarantee of its truth within itself. It must succeed in satisfying mankind's need for science not through laws found later, but through the power inherent in it.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: A Clearer Look Into The Present 01 Nov 1884,

The whole was thought through and carried through to its final consequences with all the power of the mind, and under the care of German researchers a scientific structure soon emerged, firmly established and well-founded in all its parts.
It will be the power of the German spirit which will show what is true about Darwinism, and which will at the same time show that, applied beyond a certain degree, it is inwardly untrue, shallow and shallow; it will overcome it by limiting its sphere of power, by understanding it. The second phenomenon we want to point out is the striving of the European peoples to find that form of state in which the moral dignity and freedom of each individual citizen is most fully realized.
30. Collected Essays on Philosophy, Science, Aesthetics and Psychology 1884–1901: The Past and Current Reputation of German Philosophy 30 Dec 1886,
Translated by Steiner Online Library

The rejection of sovereign thinking, combined with the insistence on the sayings of experience, is quite the same for a deeper understanding as the blind faith in revelation of a dismissed theology. Theology is handed down truths that it must accept without being allowed to ask why, without being able to use its own thinking to work out why what it believes to be true is true.
We no longer believe that we are capable of setting ourselves the goal and purpose of our lives. We believe ourselves to be under the sway of an iron necessity of nature, just as an outdated humanity believed itself to be under the sway of divine wisdom.

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