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
An important question, however, confronts us here. If human
organisation has no part in the essential nature of thinking, what
is its function within the whole nature of man? Well, the effects
of thinking upon this organisation have no bearing upon the essence
of thinking, but they have a bearing upon the origin of the "I," or
Ego-consciousness, through thinking. Thinking, in its unique character,
constitutes the real Ego, but it does not constitute, as such, the
Ego-consciousness. To see this we have but to study thinking with an
open mind. The Ego is to be found in thinking. The Ego-consciousness
arises through the traces which, in the sense above explained, the
activity of thinking impresses upon our general consciousness. The
Ego-consciousness thus arises through the physical organisation. This
view must not, however, be taken to imply that the Ego-consciousness,
once it has arisen, remains dependent on the physical organisation. On
the contrary, once it exists it is taken up into thought and shares
henceforth thought's spiritual self-subsistence.
The Ego-consciousness is built upon human organisation. The latter
is the source of all acts of will. Following out the direction of
the preceding exposition, we can gain insight into the connection of
thought, conscious Ego, and act of will, only by studying first how
an act of will issues from human organisation. [4]
In a particular act of will we must distinguish two factors: the
motive and the spring of action. The motive is a factor of the nature
of concept or idea; the spring of action is the factor in will which
is directly determined in the human organisation. The conceptual
factor, or motive, is the momentary determining cause of an act
of will; the spring of action is the permanent determining factor
in the individual. The motive of an act of will can be only a pure
concept, or else a concept with a definite relation to perception,
i.e., an idea. Universal and individual concepts (ideas) become
motives of will by influencing the human individual and determining
him to action in a particular direction. One and the same concept,
however, or one and the same idea, influence different individuals
differently. They determine different men to different actions. An
act of will is, therefore, not merely the outcome of a concept or
an idea, but also of the individual make-up of human beings. This
individual make-up we will call, following Eduard von Hartmann, the
"characterological disposition." The manner in which concept and idea
act on the characterological disposition of a man gives to his life
a definite moral or ethical stamp.
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