The Rudolf Steiner Archive

35. Science at a Crossroads

[ 1 ] It has now been more than 100 years since Schiller made this significant statement: “Natural science and philosophy will continue to follow separate paths for a long time to come, only to come together in harmony in the distant future.”

[ 2 ] Have we, in a certain sense, drawn closer to the era of reconciliation? As a philosopher, Schiller came to the conclusion and observation at the time that spiritual life lies behind the physical world.

[ 3 ] What we call Theosophy today offers us a different kind of insight into the spiritual world. Natural science, too, has undergone significant developments over the past century. That insight into the spiritual world sheds light on what is important to us; it speaks to our feelings and emotions. It might now seem that we are far from reaching an understanding between the natural sciences and philosophy. Those who listen to or read about a theosophical lecture with only a superficial understanding often believe that theosophy is empty chatter or fantasy, and the theosophist who is under the influence and spell of the scientific creed also finds this view justified. Many regard theosophy as a passing fad.

[ 4 ] Today I would like to give you a picture of the true state of affairs between the natural sciences and the humanities. I will outline the views of the natural sciences in broad strokes and show you, first, the contradiction and how theosophy relates to it, and second, we will see how human life relates to it.

[ 5 ] What actually underlies this world? First, let’s see what reason can make of it. When we look around, we are surrounded by the world of sounds, the world of colors, and the world of smells, tastes, and sensory perceptions. All of this floods our senses. Now, over the course of the nineteenth century, a certain scientific creed has taken shape. In our educational institutions today, this view is no longer emphasized as strongly, but through books and various other channels, it has spread to such an extent that it is generally accepted as fact. So one asks: What lies behind these perceptions? Based on what appears to be a thoroughly scientific premise, it is assumed that all this diversity actually exists only in our sensory perception.

[ 6 ] Many emphasize that, for example, color exists only within us; outside, there is only vibrating, moving matter. Color is said to arise from etheric vibrations. If we close our eyes, there is no red; there is only colorless, moving matter. If we continue in this direction and assume that all beings lost their eyes, there would be no more red—only colorless, vibrating etheric matter.

[ 7 ] This concept was not limited to color, but applied to all sensory perceptions. At that time, for example, it was said: If you dip your hands into a pot of hot liquid and feel heat, this perception exists only within your own sensation; in the pot, there is only matter in motion. If there were no eyes, the world would be dark and colorless—nothing but moving matter. Take away all living beings, and what remains is moving matter. — They further said: Behind the diversity of our perceptions, the world is filled with colliding particles of matter; these give rise to color and heat.

[ 8 ] At that time, there were a few consistent scholars who are not held in very high regard today, but who had the courage to think these views through logically and draw conclusions. Büchner, [Vogt], Moleschott: How did the world appear to them? The inevitable conclusion follows that human beings, too, consist of nothing other than moving atoms and molecules.

[ 9 ] What is happening here? Here you stand, there stands the world, and there rises the whole world that you imagine. It is impossible for this to remain merely a theory. For these thinkers, it did not remain a theory. They said: If man is nothing more than swirling matter, then death is a disintegration, and all existence that is supposed to continue is an illusion. They regarded all talk of immortality as a play on words that should be a thing of the past.

[ 10 ] Helmholtz, a cautious thinker, refers to all sensory perceptions as signs of objective existence.

[ 11 ] It was then discovered that these substances, which surround matter, can be broken down, and 70 different substances were identified. People said to themselves: All matter in space is divided into the smallest particles, into a granular substance. They imagined that water is formed this way: oxygen and hydrogen face each other in their smallest forms, and when they intermingle, they combine to form water.

[ 12 ] What, then, is actually eternal? Only the atom of a simple element is eternal. Science makes the atom its fetish, its idol. Everything else is a ebb and flow of matter. Everything vanishes in death; the world is mist and fog, and behind it lies the eternal atom.

[ 13 ] Now let us consider the second question and see how human life relates to it. When the question arose: Where did humans come from? Where do they originate? — it was concluded that humans evolved from lower, imperfect living beings. It has been said that speech, thought, and moral sensibility are merely elaborations of what animals also possess. Animals have a voice and demonstrate memory; the dog shows a hint of religious feeling in the loyalty with which it reveres its master; these are echoes of human feelings toward God.

[ 14 ] Let us, on the other hand, substitute the two images of the Theosophical worldview. For Theosophists, color, warmth, and qualities are truly existing entities. We can experience color, sound, smell, taste, and touch; and when we find them—such as color, hardness, and so on—in an object, we recognize a material body. For the theosophist today, these sensory perceptions are something that can be experienced and perceived. Those who see spiritually perceive the active Spirit.

[ 15 ] Just as ice relates to water, so does the material relate to the spirit in spiritual research. Roughly speaking, theosophy views all that is material as condensed spirit. Sound, color, and even movement are condensed spirit. We know what lies behind them because we experience it ourselves. When we look within ourselves, we sense spirit; we see the active spirit in things, the spirit of which we ourselves are composed.

[ 16 ] What does the science of the spirit have to say against the atomistic worldview? We ask: What is an atom supposed to be? We cannot regard as reality—as actual existence—that which has no color and no taste. After all, the atom has no color; no, for color is produced by the movement of matter. An atom would be a figment of the imagination if it were presented as reality.

[ 17 ] How has natural science responded to this atomistic worldview? In a lecture, Du Bois-Reymond expressed the idea—which I am briefly alluding to here—that the genuine, true natural scientist attributes everything he perceives in the world to moving matter. He said something at that time that is important for the humanities today. He echoed Leibniz, who said: Imagine that the human brain were so large that one could enter it. If the soul were to have the perception—“I see red,” “I smell the scent of roses,” “I hear the sound of an organ”—then one could examine how certain parts of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen move. The movement in the brain would also be visible, but the sensation “I see red” cannot be understood. Du Bois-Reymond says: A bridge will never be built; it is impossible to comprehend how the atoms move. He concluded his reflection with this: Let us consider a sleeping person. For that person, the sensation “I see red” has sunk into an unconscious darkness. The natural scientist can explain what lies there in bed, but when the person wakes up in the morning saying, “I see red,” we cannot build a bridge to that sensation. “Ignorabimus”—we will never know. The natural scientist can never build a bridge to the spiritual realm.

[ 18 ] Here is another perspective. I would like to refer to a meeting of natural scientists. In his speech “Overcoming Materialism,” the chemist Ostwald demonstrated that the assumption of a material substance behind phenomena makes no sense. What lies behind them are forces and energy. When you receive a blow, what interests you first is the force of the blow. Thus, a sum of force took the place of a sum of atoms. We see here how a thoughtful natural scientist began to have doubts. Following this, a natural scientist put forward the view that humans are descended from apes, from imperfect living beings.

[ 19 ] What does spiritual science propose as an alternative to this image? What does spiritual research consider the sleeping human being to be? It would be nonsense, after all, if the entire sum of one’s experiences were to vanish in the evening, only to return the next morning. The entity that is the bearer of “I see red” is not united with the sleeping human being. In the theosophical worldview, we recognize four real members of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I.” Roughly speaking, the physical and etheric bodies are, for us, a condensed astral body. The astral body is nothing other than a chaotic flood of pain, joy, suffering, and inner experiences. — Material processes are the effects of spiritual processes.

[ 20 ] In response to this, it has been said: Surely you don’t imagine that pain and suffering float freely through space? — This “great folly” is true.

[ 21 ] What is the physical effect [of] the spiritual? I would like to mention two processes: the feeling of shame and the feeling of fear and terror. These are psychological processes. The blood is redistributed throughout the body.

[ 22 ] There is a materialistic worldview—pragmatism, which is based on cause and effect—that states: A person does not cry because he is sad, but rather he is sad [because] he cries.

[ 23 ] You know that the psychological process of fear produces physical effects. What today appears to be merely a remnant was present to a much greater extent in ancient times.

[ 24 ] What significance does the sleeping human being have for spiritual science? The physical and etheric bodies. The astral body, together with the “I,” is detached. In the future, when we have developed astral faculties, we will know more in our sleep than we do during the day. What does the astral body do at night? It is busy dispelling the fatigue that has accumulated. The materialist will say even here: “Don’t you know that science knows the causes of fatigue?” To this one must reply—with a [parable]: One person gives another a hard slap in the face. A third person says: “I know for certain that anger is the cause.” The other replies: “You fantasist, you’re talking about psychological processes; I only saw him raise his hand and strike.”

[ 25 ] Physical processes are merely the expression of mental processes. We regard this activity of the astral body as merely a lingering remnant of significant processes from the past. In modern humans, the astral body works from the outside for one-third of the day. If we go back in time, it used to work outside the body for a far greater portion of the day; it did not have time to dispel fatigue, but rather worked to transform the form. At that time, it shaped the imperfect body. But even though it used to withdraw only briefly, it still had a powerful effect on the transformation of the physical body. In the past, it was still entirely an astral body.

[ 26 ] Human beings began as spirits. Let me give you an illustration of this development: Imagine many clumps of water. Let’s assume that a portion inside each one forms into small chunks of ice; in some, the ice chunk would fall out, while in others it would remain inside. In the latter case, the ice lump can grow larger and larger. Now, some of these would in turn let a larger ice lump fall out. Those that let the ice lump fall out remained at their stage, while those that kept it inside continued to develop until each had created its own image within the water. That is the image of humankind.

[ 27 ] The astral human being forms a tiny physical body. In some cases, it fell away. These are the most imperfect living beings today. In others, where development continued and more energy was channeled into it, fish emerged; then other animals followed, leading up to the development of the human being. He left behind the stages of his ongoing development in the animals. They represent a degenerate form of human development.

[ 28 ] Perfection consists in his expressing, in an external, material form, what he previously possessed only inwardly.

[ 29 ] What is the scientific community’s stance on its own theory of human evolution from apes? Some naturalists have gone so far as to say: No, when we observe apes, we can in no way justify the assumption that the ape is the ancestor of humans. We cannot find the intermediate form. We can only trace mammals downward; humanity is on the rise. Thus, natural science is on the right path. It simply cannot yet conceive that what distinguishes humans is of a spiritual nature; yet we see it moving in the direction of seeking humanity’s origin in the spiritual.

[ 30 ] However, a new discovery has sparked a revolution in the natural sciences: radium. What does this discovery reveal to us? The fact that there are substances—materials—that have very different effects, such as on photographic plates and other media. These are affected by gas outflow and an electric atmosphere. They lose this property after some time and then regain it. It is a uranium salt.

[ 31 ] I am referring here to what natural science has learned about transformation. It has been forced to conclude the following: It used to proclaim that the atom is eternal and indestructible. Now it has learned that this atom decays and breaks apart.

[ 32 ] And the story continued. The English scholar Ramsay demonstrates how one substance transforms into an entirely different one—in the case of the metal helium. One might be tempted to say: Here, the dreams of the ancient alchemists have come true. But if one substance transforms into another, where, then, is the eternal?

[ 33 ] Balfour, the British minister, explained in his lecture on worldview that an atom is electricity flowing through space.

[ 34 ] Others have said: When chlorine and copper combine, something else happens as well. When they bond, heat is released and flows out. The peculiar thing is that this heat must be the same when chlorine and copper separate. We can imagine this as sacks that are puffed up with heat. If you release them and then give them heat again, they become puffed up once more. Atoms are shells; their interior is heat. They themselves are nothing other than condensed heat. Today, science refers to matter as condensed electricity. It is on the path to recognizing matter as condensed spirit.

[ 35 ] Thus, we have seen two things: first, a transparent, clear picture of the world, and second, that the facts of natural science point toward the spiritual.

[ 36 ] The doctrine of the atomic world is rooted in fantasy. Theosophy is the dissolution of all fantasy. The facts themselves will shine through and reveal how the atom is fractured. Natural science is on the path toward spiritual science. We see how theosophy sheds light on this, and what our eyes see can be explained in terms of our physical existence.

[ 37 ] We are on the threshold of a new era. Back then, the natural sciences were earthbound; today, the latest research is propelling them upward toward the spiritual realm.

[ 38 ] Natural science and philosophy must be reconciled. This reconciliation will lead to the true salvation and progress of humankind.