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
There are many who will say that the concept of the free man which
I have here developed, is a chimera nowhere to be found realised,
and that we have got to deal with actual human beings, from whom we
can expect morality only if they obey some moral law, i.e., if they
regard their moral task as a duty and do not simply follow their
inclinations and loves. I do not deny this. Only a blind man could
do that. But, if so, away with all this hypocrisy of morality! Let us
say simply that human nature must be compelled to act as long as it is
not free. Whether the compulsion of man's unfree nature is effected by
physical force or through moral laws, whether man is unfree because he
indulges his unmeasured sexual desire, or because he is bound tight
in the bonds of conventional morality, is quite immaterial. Only let
us not assert that such a man can rightly call his actions his own,
seeing that he is driven to them by an external force. But in the midst
of all this network of compulsion, there arise free spirits who, in
all the welter of customs, legal codes, religious observances, etc.,
learn to be true to themselves. They are free in so far as they obey
only themselves; unfree in so far as they submit to control. Which of
us can say that he is really free in all his actions? Yet in each of us
there dwells something deeper in which the free man finds expression.
Our life is made up of free and unfree actions. We cannot, however,
form a final and adequate concept of human nature without coming upon
the free spirit as its purest expression. After all, we are men in
the fullest sense only in so far as we are free.
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