Realistic thinking

When thinking, the spiritual investigator asks not only whether it is logical, but also whether it is in accordance with reality. That is the deciding factor for him to adopt a conception or not. Only then does he adopt a conception if this conception is true to reality. 

Translated bij DeepL and Google and me

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 76 – Die befruchtende Wirkung der Anthroposophie auf die Fachwissenschaften – Dornach, 7 April 1921 (page 152)

https://odysseetheater.org/GA/Buecher/GA_076.pdf#view=Fit

Present-day intellectualism is in an upper layer of reality and does not go down into the depths of being

Human thinking, the present intellect, lies in a stratum of being where it does not reach down to realities. One can therefore prove something quite strictly, and also prove its opposite. It is possible today to prove spiritualism on the one hand and materialism on the other. And people may fight against each other from equally good standpoints because present-day intellectualism is in an upper layer of reality and does not go down into the depths of being. 

And it is the same with party opinions. A man who does not look deeper but simply lets himself be accepted into a certain party-circle — by reason of his education, heredity, circumstances of life and State — quite honestly believes — or so he thinks — in the possibility of proving the tenets of the party into which he has slipped, as he says. And then — then he fights against someone else who has slipped into another party! And the one is just as right as the other. This calls forth chaos and confusion over mankind that will gradually become greater and greater unless men see through it.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 193 – The Ahrimanic Deception – Zurich, October 27, 1919

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19191027p01.html

Art of Hans van der Ham

Previously posted on 25 april 2019

Social Blundering

It is important that one does not only come upon ingenious and clever ideas but that the right thoughts are discovered, that one finds ideas that can actually be applied and used. And in spiritual science, it depends on healthy thinking, a thinking that can truly penetrate reality. You can have the most complicated ideas in relation to outer physical events but then at most only indicate from out of the basic principles of pure mathematics and technology if a mistake was made: It can happen for instance that someone builds a railway bridge incorrectly and maybe after the third train travels over it, the bridge collapses. 

But you cannot demonstrate, for example, let’s say from medical science, when so and so many people regain their health and so and so many people die, what share medical science had in the resulting casualties or recoveries. There the situation is not so clear. And with respect to the social organism the situation is even much more nebulous. There the blundering and quackery can cause the utmost confusion.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 192 – Geisteswissen- schaftliche Behandlung sozialer und pädagogischer Fragen – Stuttgart, April 21, 1919 (page 30)

Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger

Also available in RS archive: https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA192/English/UNK192A/19190421p01.html

Amanda Sage Art

Pteviously posted on 25 March 2019

Objective reality

We will never be able to discover the facts of the spiritual world unless we develop an attitude that acknowledges the facts of the physical world. The right way of experiencing the spiritual world must be developed here in the physical world. That is why we have been placed in the physical world: it is our task here to seek for ideas that are in harmony with objective reality, so that we acquire this ability and so that it becomes a habit we can carry with us into the spiritual world.

But today so many people base their assertions on nothing but emotion and are not in the least interested in whether they agree with objective reality. This is precisely the opposite of the direction in which humanity must move if it is to progress. And, especially in our materialistic age, the notion of thinking in accordance with reality has been so frightfully distorted by the influences we have been describing; thinking that is in accord with reality has become a rarity. And an honest attempt to think in accordance with reality today collides with all the contemporary thinking that is at variance with reality. 

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 170 – Riddle of Humanity: Lecture Thirteen: Dornach, 28 August 1916

Michael – Art of David Newbatt

Previously posted on 15 september 2021

Hold on to the facts

What we speak nowadays corresponds little to outward facts. It is mostly the outcome of various opinions and passions. However, when we add to our external sensory perceptions what does not match pure reality, and reflect it as thoughts, we destroy our capacity for higher knowledge. […] The most basic rule for ascending to the higher worlds is this: learn to hold on to the pure facts of the physical world.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 220 – Lebendiges Naturerkennen Intellektueller Sündenfall und spirituelle Sündenerhebung– Dornach, January 20, 1923 (page 128-129)

Anonymous translator

Also available in RS Archive: https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA220/English/Singles/19230120p02.html

Uriel- Art of David Newbatt 

Previously posted on 16 March 2019