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
Without such assumptions the world of the Naïve Realist would collapse
into a disconnected chaos of percepts, without mutual relations,
and having no unity within itself. It is clear, however, that Naïve
Realism can make these assumptions only by contradicting itself. If
it would remain true to its fundamental principle, that only what
is perceived is real, then it ought not to assume a reality where
it perceives nothing. The imperceptible forces of which perceptible
things are the bearers are, in fact, illegitimate hypotheses from
the standpoint of Naïve Realism. But because Naïve Realism knows no
other realities, it invests its hypothetical forces with perceptual
content. It thus transfers a form of existence (the existence of
percepts) to a sphere where the only means of making any assertion
concerning such existence, viz., sense-perception, is lacking.
This self-contradictory theory leads to Metaphysical Realism. The
latter constructs, beside the perceptible reality, an imperceptible
one which it conceives on the analogy of the former. Metaphysical
Realism is, therefore, of necessity Dualistic.
Wherever the Metaphysical Realist observes a relation between
perceptible things (mutual approach through movement, the
entrance of an object into consciousness, etc.), there he posits a
reality. However, the relation of which he becomes aware cannot be
perceived but only expressed by means of thought. The ideal relation
is thereupon arbitrarily assimilated to something perceptible. Thus,
according to this theory, the world is composed of the objects of
perception which are in ceaseless flux, arising and disappearing,
and of imperceptible forces by which the perceptible objects are
produced, and which are permanent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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