Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Search results 681 through 690 of 6552

˂ 1 ... 67 68 69 70 71 ... 656 ˃
107. The Development of Christianity in Present Humanity 15 Feb 1909, Berlin

And precisely when we study St. Francis of Assisi and cannot understand how, as modern people, we have his conscious ego and yet must have the deepest admiration for his entire emotional world, for everything he did, it becomes understandable from this point of view.
It is most important that we should learn to understand this again and again in the field of spiritual science, that the will to discuss may actually be regarded as a sign of ignorance; on the other hand, we should cultivate the will to learn, the will to gradually understand what is at stake.
Read David Friedrich Strauß. Try to see the way he thinks. Try to understand his train of thought: how he wants to show that the whole life of Jesus of Nazareth is a myth.
107. The Astral World: The Astral World 19 Oct 1908, Berlin
Translated by M. Gotfare

The human being stands, and must stand for all our studies, is the central point. Understanding human nature means, really, to understand a great part of the world. But human nature is difficult to understand, and we shall gain a small piece of this understanding of the human being, if we speak today of a few facts, only a few facts of the astral world.
There is a possibility—and there it shows us how we can penetrate into the understanding of the spiritual world through knowledge of the true, the right—there is a possibility that we can lose the directing control over what streams into us.
Let us suppose that in the course of life an individual man has had a number of friendships. Under the influence of these friendships, quite definite feelings and sensations have developed, especially in youth.
107. The Astral World: Some Characteristics of the Astral World 21 Oct 1908, Berlin
Translated by M. Gotfare

It is to show that spiritual science—or rather the special way of observing the world, which underlies it—stands in fullest harmony with certain results of the specifically scientific method. It is not quite easy for the anthroposophist (as can be seen particularly in public lectures) to find complete understanding in a totally unprepared public.
One must not, on this account, be too unjust towards those who cannot understand anthroposophists; they lack all the preparation that is definitely required in order to be able to grasp the results of spiritual research.
There are very singular sea-creatures, which you will understand if you remember what we have now described to some extent of the mysteries of the astral world.
107. The Astral World: The Law of the Astral Plane: Renunciation; The Law of the Devachanic Plane: Sacrifice 26 Oct 1908, Berlin
Translated by M. Gotfare

How can one admit that anything so vacillating, so dependent on personality as sympathy and antipathy can become an authority for knowledge and can be so far disciplined that they could grasp the innermost nature of a thing? That thought does so can be easily understood, but that when we confront something, and it arouses a feeling in us, this feeling can be of such a nature that not personal sympathy or antipathy speaks, but that feeling itself can become a means of expression for the inmost being of the thing—that seems hardly credible!
That which changes from the color-nuances into tones—that under all circumstances is bliss. At the present stage of evolution, all in Devachan is a bringing forth, production, and in respect of knowledge, a spiritual hearing.
108. The Answers to Questions About the World and Life Provided by Anthroposophy: The Place of Anthroposophy in Philosophy 14 Mar 1908, Berlin

Among the representatives of this trend is Spinoza, who cannot be understood otherwise than by linking him, on the one hand, to Western Orientalism and, on the other, to Kabbalism. All other talk about Spinoza is talk in which one has no solid ground under one's feet. But then “empiricism” spread with a vengeance, especially under the aegis of Locke and Hume.
In the first centuries, something else lived in the souls, which prevented scholasticism from [gap in the transcription] rising above subjectivity. We can easily understand how to get beyond subjectivism if, in the manner of the scholastics, we understand the difference between concept and representation.
108. The Answers to Questions About the World and Life Provided by Anthroposophy: On Philosophy 20 Mar 1908, Munich

But when you compare it to today's arbitrary understanding of all concepts, then you first feel the benefit of that view that there must be an understanding of the concepts.
Then the intellect enters. It breaks down into an understanding of matter and form. All things contain matter and form. These two concepts take us a long way.
We have the form of the lamb and the wolf. He identifies the underlying form with the genus lamb and the genus wolf. Aristotle makes a clear distinction between the genus and the generic concept.
108. The Answers to Questions About the World and Life Provided by Anthroposophy: Formal Logic I 20 Oct 1908, Berlin

Above that arose what lived in his soul as an attitude toward Greek culture. We understand this when we learn to comprehend what lived in his soul. This image was not one in which sharp words could be chosen.
These things go their easy course, floating above reality, quite understandably. Then a twofold event happens for him. He gets to know the soul content of a person who has already died and of a living person.
He felt it in such a way that for a hundred days of the year he had the most terrible headaches. Then you can understand how this came to life in his soul: this was there countless times, it will return countless times.
108. The Answers to Questions About the World and Life Provided by Anthroposophy: Formal Logic II 28 Oct 1908, Berlin

The philosophers of the Middle Ages, who today are somewhat contemptuously grouped together under the name of scholastics, did not regard logic as an end in itself either; it did not serve to learn anything substantial.
This can be shown by an example: a boy sits in the forest under tall trees. A person comes along and admires the good-quality timber. “Good morning, carpenter,” says the bright boy.
For if I win the lawsuit, you must pay according to the judgment; if you win, you must pay according to the contract, for you have won your first lawsuit. But the student: Wise teacher! Under no circumstances do I have to pay. For if the judges rule in my favor, I have nothing to pay according to the judgment; but if they rule against me, I pay nothing according to our contract.
108. The Answers to Questions About the World and Life Provided by Anthroposophy: On Philosophy and Formal Logic 08 Nov 1908, Munich

Certain laws can be established about judgments. The laws of inference will only be understood once the tenets about the concepts and judgments have been established. So today we will first deal with the laws of judgments and concepts.
They differ in the following ways. Think about what all falls under the concept of “mammal”. It is a large group of individual objects, for example, monkeys, lions, marsupials, and so on; that is much more than we summarize under the term “lion”, which gives us only a small part of the “mammal” concept.
But the friend realized the futility of such an undertaking and advised him to leave as he was and take his chances. The next day, the examinee was asked: Do you know what an analytical judgment is?
108. The Answers to Questions About the World and Life Provided by Anthroposophy: Friedrich Nietzsche In the Light of Spiritual Science 10 Jun 1908, Düsseldorf

Now, in order for you to see what is meant by this, I would like to give you an understanding of formal logic. Logic is the study of concepts, judgments, and conclusions. First, we need to understand a little bit about how concepts relate to judgments and conclusions.
It is significant that he seeks to ascend from representation to concept. Anyone who understands the matter knows that one does not arrive at the concept of the horse by leaving out the differences and keeping what remains.
Now the law teacher says to him: “You will pay me the fee under all circumstances.” But the student claims: “I will not pay it under any circumstances.” And he wants to do this by taking the teacher to court for the fee.

Results 681 through 690 of 6552

˂ 1 ... 67 68 69 70 71 ... 656 ˃