Aspects of Human Evolution

Notes

Lecture I

1. “It is better to be a beggar ...” Homer, Odyssey, eleventh book, verses 289-291; the speech of Achilles.

2. Franz Brentano, 1838–1917, professor in Vienna 1874–1880; Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte, Bd. I, 1874.

3. Woodrow Wilson, 1856–1924, President of the United States from 1913-1921, professor of philosophy.

Lecture II

1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749–1832; Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, edited by Rudolf Steiner (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland) 1982. Original edition by Joseph Kiirschner, 1883–1897.

2. Robert Scheu, 1873–1964, Kulturpolitik, Vienna, 1901.

3. Ibid.

4. Dr. Johann Plenge, 1874–1963, 1789 and 1914. Die symbolischen Jahre in der Geschichte des politischen Geistes, Berlin 1916.

Lecture III

1. Friedrich Rittelmeyer, 1872–1938, professor of theology, pastor in Nurnberg and Berlin, co-founder of the Christian Community.

2. Ludwig Deinhard, 1847–1917, Das Mysterium des Menschen im Lichte der psychischen Forschung, Berlin 1910.

3. Arthur Drews, 1865–1935, see: “Ist Jesus eine historische Perstinlichkeit?” in Hat Jesus gelebt?, Berlin and Leipzig 1910, and Die Christusmythe, Jena 1910 and 1911.

4. Meister Eckart, 1260–1327, German mystic and preacher.

5. Johannes Tauler, 1300–1361, German mystic and preacher.

6. Jacob Boehme, 1575–1624, German pantheist mystic and philosopher.

7. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, 1762–1814, German idealist philosopher.

8. Adolf Harnack, 1851–1930, German Lutheran theologian.

9. Professor Dewar, 1842–1923, chemist, lecturer at the Royal Institution in London.

10. Rudolf Kjellen, 1864–1922, Der Staat als Lebensform, Leipzig 1916.

11. See also Lecture VI, p. 117 and Lecture VIII, p. 157.

12. Rudolf Steiner, Human and Cosmic Thought (Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1967).

13. Boris Bugajeff (Andrej Bjelyi), 1880–1934. Rudolf Steiner and Goethe in der Weltanschauung der Gegenwart.

14. Peter III, Czar of Russia 1768–1762.

15. Der unsichtbare Tempel; Monatsschri ft zur Sammlung der Geister, Mtinchen 1916–1920, 5 volumes edited by the brothers Dr. Ernst and Dr. August Horneffer.

16. Ernst Horneffer, 1871–1954, professor in Giessen, followed Dr. Fritz Koegel as editor in the Nietzsche archives. See Nietzsches letztes Schaffen, Jena 1907.

17. Franz Brentano, see note 2 to Lecture I.

18. Franz Brentano, Das Genie, a lecture held in the Center for Engineering and Architecture in Vienna, published in Leipzig, 1892.

19. Franz Xavier Benedikt Baader, 1765–1841, philosopher.

Lecture IV

1. Moritz Benedikt, 1835-1920, criminologist and anthropologist.

2. Moritz Benedikt, Ruten- und Pendellehre, Vienna and Leipzig, 1917.

3. Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man (Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1985).

4. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, 1775–1854, see Von der Weltseele, 1798: “It is very true that a body only acts where it is; but it is equally true that it only is where it acts.”

5. Rudolf Steiner, Riddles of Philosophy (Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1973).

6. Max Dessoir, 1867–1947, philosopher and psychologist. Vom Jenseits der Seele, Stuttgart, 1917. Further references to this book will be indicated in the text.

7. Rudolf Steiner, Occult Science: An Outline (Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1984). Further references to this book will be indicated in the text.

8. Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Guidance of Man (Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1976), p. 22.

9. Steiner, Riddles of Philosophy, ibid.

10. Kürschner is the name of the German publishing house that has been publishing an annually updated encyclopedia of literature, philosophy, and literary history with writers' names, dates of birth, etc. since 1873. This encyclopedia is generally known by the name of its publisher as “Kürschner.”

11. Ferdinand August Louvier, Sphinx Locuta est. Goethe's “Faust” und die Resultate einer rationellen Methode der Forschung. 2 volumes, Berlin, 1884, p. 122.

12. Edwin Bormann, 1851–1912, Der historische Beweis der Bacon-Shakespeare Theorie, 1897.

13. Stefan George, 1868–1933, German poet.

14. Steiner quotes Dessoir's comparison of these poems in order to criticize Dessoir's-method. The complete text, deleted in the text, is included here:

Then he goes on to Stefan George. Here he has the tasteful style of characterizing Stefan George by quoting three of his poems. It is not necessary to go into all of that. It would take an hour to demonstrate Max Dessoir's distortions to you completely; but we will go into one of them, where he compares three poems. It is not necessary to be a fan of these poems, but I want to show you the system Max Dessoir uses. So, please, don't take it as if I were a proponent of Werfel's poems—that is not the point here.

Entrückter, leichter Himmel fiber dem Ort!
Du weißt von der Seebader goldenen Fetzen.
Du weißt von Prinzen
Und herbstlichem Halali.
Ihr Knabenbaume
Zuckt von den Schultern
Das letzte Netz,
Das braune.
Den Schatten werfet auf mich,
Hier sitze ich
Und lese den iibermiitigen
Namen im Stein.
Nun bist du bei meiner Großmutter, Kind,
O unterirdisches Fest,
Das niemand denken will!

As I said, one could hold something against this poem; but Dessoir has the tasteful touch, and compares it with the following poem. This, which I will now read, is the first of the poems:

Der blasse Adelknabe spricht:
Du Dunkelheit, aus der ich stamme?
Ich glaube an alles noch nie Gesagte,
Ich bin auf der Welt zu allein and doch nicht allein genug.
Du siehst, ich will viel!
Wir bauen an dir mit zitternden Handen.

That is the first poem; then comes Werfel's poem, then comes the third. That I will also read now:

Vielleicht, da ich durch schwere Berge gehe—
Du Berg, der blieb, da die Gebirge kamen,
Mach mich zum Wachter deiner Weiten,
Denn, Herr, die großen Stadte sind:
Da leben Menschen, weiß erbliihte, blasse,
O Herr, gib jedem semen eignen Tod!
Herr, wir sind armer denn die armen Tiere,
Mach' Einen Herrlich, Herr, mach' Einen groß
Das letzte Zeichen laß an uns geschehen

The middle poem, that I read to you first, is really Werfel's; but to interpret it Dessoir tastefully takes a volume of Rilke's poems, and does not quote them as written but includes only their first lines as they stand in the table of contents! He makes poems by putting their first lines together, and compares them with Werfel's poem. That is the tasteful way in which he tries to characterize modern verse. He wants to say: Werfel's poem also arises, if one takes the first lines of Rilke's Stundenbuch (Prayer-Book) and writes them consecutively to construct a poem. That is how he does it.

Franz Werfel, 1890–1945, Austrian poet.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875–1926, German poet.

15. Guido von List, 1848–1919, Carnuntum, historischer Roman aus dem vierten Jahrhundert nach Christus, 2 volumes, Berlin, 1889.

16. Luzifer-Gnosis: a periodical edited by Rudolf Steiner from 1903–1908. Essays which he wrote for the journal may be found in Luzifer-Gnosis, GA 34, Dornach, and in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment (Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1985).

Lecture V

1. Franz Brentano, see note 2 to Lecture I.

2. Franz Brentano, Die Psychologie des Aristoteles, in particular his ideas of “nus poetikos.” “The nus poetikos is the light that illuminates phantasms, and makes the spiritual within the empirical visible for our spiritual eyes,” from a supplement on the “Activity of the Aristotelian God”; Mainz, 1867, p. 172.

3. Johann Friedrich Herbart, 1776–1841, German philosopher.

4. Immanuel Kant, 1725–1804, Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, and Critique of Judgment, available in various editions and translations in English. — from Critique of Practical Reason, Part 1, section 7, the Categorical Imperative: “Act so that the principles underlying your will at any time could also be a principle for a universal law.” Compare also his Foundation for a Metaphysics of Morals, second section.

5. Franz Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis, a lecture held on January 23, 1889, at the Vienna Law Society; published in Leipzig, 1889.

6. Rudolf von Ihering, 1818–1892, jurist. His views were expressed in a lecture “Über die Entstehung des Rechtsgefuhls,” given several years before Brentano's (see above note) at the Vienna Law Society.

7. Wilhelm Windelband, 1848–1915, German philosopher.

8. Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom (Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY, 1964).

9. Rudolf Steiner, Education of the Child (Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1965).

10. Plotinus, 204-270, neo-Platonic philosopher.

Lecture VI

1. Ralph Waldo Trine, 1866–1958. In Harmonie mit dem Unendlichen, 1897.

2. Ernst Mach, 1838–1916, Austrian physicist and epistemologist, belonged to the school of empirical positivism, Beitrage zur Analyse der Empfindungen, Jena, 1886.

3. Johann Fercher von Steinwand (actually Johann Kleinfercher), 1828–1902. Zigeuner. Begegnisse and Betrachtungen, 1859 in Gesamtausgabe seiner Werke, Vienna 1903, third volume, page 365ff.

4. Rudolf Steiner, Vom Menschenrätsel (Verlag der Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach), 1984, GA20.

5. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712–1778, French philosopher. The prize-winning work for the Academy in Paris is entitled, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, 1750.

6. See Lecture III, p.

7. Eduard Bernstein, 1850–1932, Memoirs of a Socialist Part 1: From the Years of my Exile, Berlin, 1918, published in German.

8. Karl Marx, 1818–1883, German socialist, founded dialectical materialism with Friedrich Engels, 1820-1895.

9. Theodor Ziehen, 1863–1950, philosopher and psychologist.

10. Franz Brentano, see note 2 to Lecture I.

11. In the April edition of 1916, the first volumes of Reich (Realm), a journal founded by Alexander Freiherr von Bernus (Lindau 1880), a quarterly produced in Munich and Heidelberg. 1st vol, 1st edition (April 1916), pp. 106-123; and, vol. 1, 3rd edition (October 1916), pp. 420-432.

12. Theosophy, see note 3 to Lecture IV.

13. Occult Science, see note 7 to Lecture IV.

Lecture VII

1. Blaise Pascal, 1623–1662. Penseés, in many English editions. From the German edition of Ewald Wasmuth, Heidelberg, 1954, pp. 240-241: “We not only know God and ourselves through Jesus Christ; but life and death we know only through him as well. Without Jesus Christ we would not understand our life, our death, God, or ourselves.”

2. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 1729–1781. The verbatim quote is: “If God held in his right hand all truth; and, in his left, the ever active drive for truth, even with the condition that I would eternally and always err, and said: ‘Choose!,’ I would fall humbly on his left and say, ‘Father, give! The pure truth is for you alone!,’ ” Eine Duplik (1778), in G.E. Lessings Sämtliche Schriften, Leipzig, 1897.

3. David Lloyd George, 1863–1945, British statesman. Prime minister, 1916–1922.

4. Sir Winston Churchill, 1874–1965, British statesman, prime minister 1940–1945, 1951–1955. Arthur Neville Chamberlain, 1869–1940, British statesman, prime minister 1937–1940.

5. William Ewart Gladstone, 1809–1898, British statesman, prime minister four times between 1868 and 1894.

6. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 1836–1908, British statesman, prime minister, 1905–1908.

7. Sir Edward Grey, 1862–1933, British statesman. British foreign Minister, 1905–1914. Herbert Henry Asquith, 1852–1928, British statesman.

8. Woodrow Wilson, 1856–1924, note 3 to Lecture I.

9. David Lloyd George, see note 3, fell from power as Prime Minister in 1922 in connection with the Irish Question. He was a minister in various cabinets from 1909–1916, and Prime Minister from December 1916–1922. The liberal party which he led lost its influence thereafter. Lloyd George's role as a prominent politician was also at an end.

Lecture VIII

1. David Lloyd George, see note 3 and note 9 to Lecture VII.

2. Eduard von Hartmann, 1842–1906, German philosopher. Philosophie des Unbewußten, 12th edition, Leipzig, 1923.

3. Ralph Waldo Trine, see note 1 to Lecture VI. Johannes Muller, 1864–1919, Protestant theologian.

4. Parmenides, approx. 450 B.C., Greek philosopher. Heraclitus, 540–470 B.C., Greek philosopher.

5. Occult Science, see note 7 to Lecture IV.

6. Pierre Joseph Proudhon, 1809–1865, French socialist and anarchist. Edward Bellamy, 1850–1898, U.S. author.

7. Viscount Alfred Charles William Northcliffe (actually Harmsworth), 1865–1922, English newspaper publisher.

8. Olga Novikoff: The M.P. for Russia, Reminiscenses and Correspondence of Mme. Olga Novikoff, edited by W.T. Stead, Vol. I 1841–78, Vol. II 1878–1908, London, 1909, Andrew Melrose.

9. Viscount Richard Burdon Haldane, 1856–1928, English statesman, Education and Empire, 1902; The Pathway to Reality, 1903–04.

10. Rudolf Hermann Lotze, 1817–1881, physician and philosopher. Metaphysics, Vol. 1, 1841–79, Vol. 2, Leipzig, 1879.

11. Rudolf Steiner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom (Rudolf Steiner Publications, Blauvelt, NY, 1985).

12. Friedrich Theodor Vischer, 1807–1887, German poet and philosopher.

13. David Friedrich Straul3, 1808–1874, German theologian.

14. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844–1900, Ecce Homo, “The Case of Wagner: A Musician Problem,” in several editions in English.

15. Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin, 1770–1843, Hyperion, oder der Eremit in Griechenland, 2 parts, Stuttgart, 1797–99, in Sämtliche Werke, Insel Verlag, Leipzig o.J., p. 580.

16. Rudolf Steiner, Vom Menschenrätsel, see note 4 to Lecture VI.

17. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 1729–1781, German playwright, poet, and critic. Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechtes (Education of Man), 1780.