The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity: A Modern Philosophy of Life Developed by Scientific MethodsSteiner, Rudolf
Religion
The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity: A Modern Philosophy of Life Developed by Scientific Methods
Steiner, Rudolf
Anthroposophy; Free will and determinism; Knowledge, Theory of; Life
form, in which we fix and isolate the concept. But in this isolation,
the concept is as much dependent solely on our organisation as is
the percept. The tree which I perceive, taken in isolation by itself,
has no existence; it exists only as a member in the immense mechanism
of Nature, and is possible only in real connection with Nature. An
abstract concept, taken by itself, has as little reality as a percept
taken by itself. The percept is that part of reality which is given
objectively, the concept that part which is given subjectively (by
intuition; cp. pp. 90 ff.). Our mental organisation breaks up reality
into these two factors. The one factor is apprehended by perception,
the other by intuition. Only the union of the two, which consists of
the percept fitted according to law into its place in the universe, is
reality in its full character. If we take mere percepts by themselves,
we have no reality but only a disconnected chaos. If we take the laws
which determine percepts by themselves, we have nothing but abstract
concepts. Reality is not to be found in the abstract concept. It is
revealed to the contemplative act of thought which regards neither
the concept by itself nor the percept by itself, but the union of both.
Even the most orthodox Idealist will not deny that we live in the
real world (that, as real beings, we are rooted in it); but he will
deny that our knowledge, by means of its ideas, is able to grasp
reality as we live it. As against this view, Monism shows that
thought is neither subjective nor objective, but a principle which
holds together both these sides of reality. The contemplative act of
thought is a cognitive process which belongs itself to the sequence of
real events. By thought we overcome, within the limits of experience
itself, the one-sidedness of mere perception. We are not able by means
of abstract conceptual hypotheses (purely conceptual speculation)
to puzzle out the nature of the real, but in so far as we find for
our percepts the right concepts we live in the real. Monism does not
seek to supplement experience by something unknowable (transcending
experience), but finds reality in concept and percept. It does not
manufacture a metaphysical system out of pure concepts, because it
looks upon concepts as only one side of reality, viz., the side which
remains hidden from perception, but is meaningless except in union
with percepts. But Monism gives man the conviction that he lives in
the world of reality, and has no need to seek beyond the world for a
higher reality. It refuses to look for Absolute Reality anywhere but
in experience, because it recognises reality in the very content of
experience. Monism is satisfied with this reality, because it knows
that our thought points to no other. What Dualism seeks beyond the
world of experience, that Monism finds in this world itself. Monism
shows that our knowledge grasps reality in its true nature, not in a
purely subjective image.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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