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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Philosophy, Cosmology and Religion
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Philosophy, Cosmology and Religion
Schmidt Number: S-4968
On-line since: 15th June, 2009
THE THREE STEPS OF ANTHROPOSOPHY
IT IS a great pleasure to me to be able to give this series of
lectures in the Goetheanum, which was founded to promote Spiritual
Science. What is here called Spiritual Science must not be
confused with those things which, more than ever at the moment, appear
as Occultism, Mysticism, etc. These schools of thought either refer to
ancient spiritual traditions which are no longer properly understood,
and which give in a dilettante manner all kinds of imagined knowledge
of super-sensible worlds, or they ape outwardly the scientific methods
which we have to-day without realizing that methods of research which
are ideal for the study of the natural world can never lead to
supernatural worlds. And what makes its appearance as Mysticism is
also either mere renewal of ancient psychic experiences, or muddled,
very often fantastic, and deceptive introspection.
As opposed to this, the attitude of the Goetheanum is one which, in
the fullest sense, falls in with the present-day view of natural
scientific research, and recognizes what is justified in it. On the
other hand, it seeks to gain objective and accurate results on the
subject of the super-sensible world by means of the strictly controlled
training of pure psychic vision. It counts only such results as are
obtained through this vision of the soul, by which the
psychic-spiritual organization is just as accurately defined as a
mathematical problem. The point is that at first this organization is
presented in scientifically indisputable vision. If we call it
the spiritual eye, we then say: as the mathematician has
his problems before him, so has the researcher into the spirit his
spiritual eye. The scientific method is employed for him
on that preparation which is in his spiritual organs. If
his science has its being in these organs, he can make use
of them, and the super-sensible world lies before him. The student of
the world of the senses directs his science to outward things, to
results; but the student of the spirit pursues science as a
preparation of vision. And when vision begins, science must already
have fulfilled its mission. If you like to call your vision
clairvoyance it is at any rate, an exact
clairvoyance. The science of the spirit begins where
that of the senses ends. Above all, the research student of
the spirit must have based his whole method of thought for the newer
Science on the one he applied to the world of the senses.
Thus it comes about that the Sciences studied to-day merge into that
realm which opens up Spiritual Science in the modern sense. It happens
not only in the separate realms of Natural Science and History, but
also e.g., in Medicine; and in all provinces of practical life, in
Art, in Morals, and in Social life. It happens also in religious
experiences.
In these lectures three of these provinces are to be dealt with, and
it is to be shown how they merge into the modern spiritual view. The
three are Philosophy, Cosmology and Religion.
At one time Philosophy was the intermediary for all human knowledge.
In its logos man acquired knowledge of the distinct provinces of
world-reality. The different Sciences are born of its substance. But
what has remained of Philosophy itself? A number of more or less
abstract ideas which have to justify their existence in face of the
other sciences, whose justification is found in observation through
the senses and in experiment. To what do the ideas of Philosophy
refer? That has to-day become an important question. We find in these
ideas no longer a direct reality, and so we try to find a theoretical
basis for this reality.
And more: Philosophy, and in its very name, love of wisdom shows that
it is not merely an affair of the intellect, but of the entire human
soul. What one can love is such a thing, and there was a
time when wisdom was considered something real, which is not the case
with ideas which engage only Reason and Intellect.
Philosophy, from being a matter for all mankind which once was felt in
the warmth of the soul, has become dry, cold knowledge: and we no
longer feel ourselves in the midst of Reality when we occupy ourselves
with philosophizing.
In mankind itself that has been lost which once made Philosophy a
real experience. Natural Science (of the outer world) is
conducted by means of the senses, and what Reason thinks
concerning the observations made by the senses is a putting-together
of the content derived through the senses. This thought has no content
of its own; and while man lives in such knowledge he knows himself
only as a physical body. But Philosophy was originally a
soul-content which was not experienced by the physical body, but by a
human organism which cannot be appreciated by the senses. This is the
etheric body, forming the basis of the physical body, and this
contains the super-sensible powers which give shape and life to the
physical body. Man can use the organization of this etheric body just
as he can that of the physical. This etheric body draws ideas from the
super-sensible world, just as the physical body does, through the
senses, from the sense world. The ancient philosophers developed their
ideas through this etheric body, and as the spiritual life of man has
lost this etheric body and its knowledge, Philosophy has
simultaneously lost its character of reality. We must first of all
recover the knowledge of etheric man, and then Philosophy will be able
to regain its character of reality. This must mark the first of the
steps to be taken by Anthroposophy.
Cosmology once upon a time showed man how he is a member of the
universe. To this end it was necessary that not only his body but also
his soul and spirit could be regarded as members of the Cosmos; and
this was the case because in the Cosmos things of the soul and things
of the spirit were visible. In later times, however, Cosmology has
become only a superstructure of Natural Science gained by Mathematics,
Observation and Experiment. The results of research in these lines are
put together to make a picture of cosmic development, and from this
picture one can no doubt understand the human physical body. But the
etheric body remains unintelligible, and in a still higher sense that
part of man which has to do with the Soul and the Spirit. The etheric
body can only be recognized as a member of the Cosmos, if the etheric
essence of the Cosmos is clearly perceived. But this etheric part of
the Cosmos can, after all, give man no more than an etheric
organization, whereas in the Soul is internal life; so we have
to take into consideration also the internal life of the
Cosmos. This is just what the old Cosmology did, and it was
because of this view of it that the soul-essence of man which
transcends the etheric was made a part of the Cosmos. Modern spiritual
life fails, however, to see the reality of the inner life of the Soul.
In modern experience, this contains no guarantee that it has an
existence beyond birth and death. All one knows to-day of the
soul-life can have its origin in and with the physical body through
the life of the embryo and the subsequent unfolding in childhood and
can end with death. There was something in the older human wisdom for
the soul of man of which modern knowledge is only a reflection; and
this was looked upon as the astral being in man. It was not
what the soul experiences in its activities of thinking, feeling and
volition, but rather something which is reflected in thinking, feeling
and volition. One cannot imagine thinking, feeling and volition
as having a part in the Cosmos, for these live only in the physical
nature of man. On the other hand the astral nature can be comprehended
as a member of the Cosmos, for this enters the physical nature at
birth and leaves it at death. That element which, during life between
birth and death, is concealed behind thought, feeling and volition
namely the astral body is the cosmic element of man.
Because modern knowledge has lost this astral element of man, it has
also lost a Cosmology which could comprise the whole of man. There
remains only a physical Cosmology, and even this contains no more than
the origins of physical man. It is necessary once more to found a
knowledge of astral man, and then we shall also again have a Cosmology
which includes the whole human being.
So the second step of Anthroposophy is marked out.
Religion in its original meaning is based on that experience whereby
man feels himself independent not only of his physical and etheric
nature, the cause of his existence between birth and death, but also
of the Cosmos, in so far as this has an influence on such an
existence. The content of this experience constitutes the real
spirit-men, that being at which our word Ego now only
hints. This Ego once connoted for man something which knew
itself to be independent of all corporeality, and independent of the
astral nature. Through such an experience man felt himself to be in a
world of which the one which gives him body and soul is but an image;
he felt a connection with a divine world. Now knowledge of this
world remains hidden to observation according to the senses. Knowledge
of etheric and astral man leads gradually to a vision of it. In the
use of his senses man must feel himself separated from the divine
world, to which belongs his inmost being: but through super-sensible
cognition he puts himself once more in touch with this world. So
super-sensible cognition merges into Religion.
In order that this may be the case, we must be able to see the real
nature of the Ego, and this power has been lost to modern
knowledge. Even philosophers see in the Ego only the
synthesis of soul experiences. But the idea which they have thereby of
the Ego, the spiritual man, is contradicted by every
sleep; for in sleep the content of this Ego is
extinguished. A consciousness which knows only such an Ego
cannot merge into Religion on the strength of its knowledge, for it
has nothing to resist the extinction of sleep. However, knowledge of
the true Ego has been lost to modern spiritual life, and
with it the possibility to attain to Religion through knowledge.
The religion that was once available is now something taken from
tradition, to which human knowledge has no longer any approach.
Religion in this way becomes the content of a Faith which is to
be gained outside the sphere of scientific experience.
Knowledge and Faith become two separate kinds of
experience of something which once was a unity.
We must first re-establish a clear cognition and knowledge of the true
Ego, if Religion is to have its proper place in the life
of mankind. In modern Science man is understood as a true reality only
in respect of his physical nature. He must be recognized
further as etheric, astral and spiritual or Ego man and
then Science will become the basis of religious life.
So is the third step of Anthroposophy worked out.
It will now be the task of the subsequent lectures to show the
possibility of acquiring knowledge of the etheric part of man, that is
to say, of clothing Philosophy with reality; it will be my further
business to point out the way to the knowledge of the astral part of
man, that is to say, to demonstrate that a Cosmology is possible which
embraces humanity; and finally will come the task to lead you to the
knowledge of the true Ego, in order to establish the
possibility of a religious life, which rests on the basis of knowledge
or cognition.
Last Modified: 23-Nov-2024
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