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
A differently constituted being would have a differently constituted
knowledge. Our own knowledge suffices to answer the questions which
result from our own mental constitution.
Metaphysical Realism must ask, What is it that gives us our
percepts? What is it that stimulates the subject?
Monism holds that percepts are determined by the subject. But
in thought the subject has, at the same time, the instrument for
transcending this determination of which it is itself the author.
The Metaphysical Realist is faced by a further difficulty when he
seeks to explain the similarity of the world-views of different human
individuals. He has to ask himself, How is it that my theory of the
world, built up out of subjectively determined percepts and out of
concepts, turns out to be the same as that which another individual
is also building up out of these same two subjective factors? How, in
any case, is it possible for me to argue from my own subjective view
of the world to that of another human being? The Metaphysical Realist
thinks he can infer the similarity of the subjective world-views of
different human beings from their ability to get on with one another
in practical life. From this similarity of world-views he infers
further the likeness to one another of individual minds, meaning by
"individual mind" the "I-in-itself" underlying each subject.
We have here an inference from a number of effects to the character
of the underlying causes. We believe that after we have observed
a sufficiently large number of instances, we know the connection
sufficiently to know how the inferred causes will act in other
instances. Such an inference is called an inductive inference. We
shall be obliged to modify its results, if further observation yields
some unexpected fact, because the character of our conclusion is,
after all, determined only by the particular details of our actual
observations. The Metaphysical Realist asserts that this knowledge
of causes, though restricted by these conditions, is quite sufficient
for practical life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account