The Rudolf Steiner Archive

A Preface

Written after the fact to accompany these lectures given more than seven years ago

[ 1 ] In these lectures, which were given in Christiania in June 1910, I attempted to outline the psychology of the development of peoples. My analysis was based on what I have presented regarding anthroposophically oriented Spiritual Science (in my books Theosophy, Esoteric Science, The Riddle of Man, The Riddles of the Soul, and others). I was able to build upon this foundation because my audience was familiar with the scientific perspective outlined in my books. However, in addition to this external reason for choosing this perspective, there is also an internal one. For a true psychology of national characters, the anthropological, ethnographic, and even historical approaches of conventional science cannot provide a sufficient foundation. One gets no further with what this science offers than one does with anatomy and physiology in gaining an understanding of the human soul life. Just as one must proceed from the body to the soul in the case of the individual human being if one wishes to understand his inner life, so too must one penetrate to the underlying psychological and spiritual reality of national characters if one strives for a genuine understanding of them. This soul-spiritual realm, however, is not merely a interaction of individual human souls, but rather a soul-spiritual realm that stands above them. Contemplating such a realm is entirely foreign to contemporary science. In its view, it is paradoxical to speak of Folk-souls as real entities, just as one speaks of the real thinking, feeling, and willing of the individual human being. And it is just as paradoxical, in this context, to relate the development of peoples on Earth to the forces of the celestial bodies in outer space. But in order not to find this any more paradoxical, one need only recall that no one would look for the forces that align a magnetic needle in the north-south direction within the magnetic needle itself. Instead, one attributes them to the effect of Earth’s magnetism. He seeks the reasons for the needle’s direction in the cosmos. May we not, then, be permitted to seek the reasons for the development of national characters, migrations of peoples, and so on, outside the context of the peoples themselves, in the cosmos? Quite apart from the anthroposophical view, for which higher spiritual beings are a reality, there is something else entirely to be considered regarding the content of these lectures. This content, however, is based on a higher spiritual reality of the development of peoples, and it seeks the forces that direct this development within such a reality. Yet the analysis then descends to the facts that come to light in the lives of peoples. And there it becomes evident that these facts become understandable through this foundation. Through this, one can gain insight into both the living conditions of individual peoples and their mutual relationships, whereas without such a foundation, true understanding in this area does not exist. One must either dispense with the study of the psychology of peoples, or one must seek a foundation for it in a spiritual reality.

[ 2 ] I have not hesitated to use the names for the higher spiritual beings that were common in the early Christian centuries. An Eastern scholar would choose different names. Yet even if one might consider the use of such names to be somewhat “unscientific” today, it still seems right to me not to shy away from using them; first, this takes into account the fundamental Christian character of our Western culture; second, it still makes understanding more likely than if completely new names were chosen, or if Eastern terms were adopted, the true meaning of which can be grasped only by those who are spiritually immersed in the corresponding cultural context. It occurs to me, however, that anyone who wishes to penetrate these spiritual contexts—provided they do not reject the matter as such—will take no greater offense at names such as angels, archangels, thrones, etc., than they do in the physical sciences at terms such as positive and negative electricity, magnetism, polarized light, etc.

[ 3 ] Anyone who connects the content of these lectures with the painful trials facing human civilization today will find that what was said back then sheds some light on what is happening now. If I were to give these lectures today, one might think that the current state of world events had prompted such reflections. For example, on page 3 of the first lecture it reads: “It is... of the utmost importance... that, especially in our time, we speak in the most open-minded way about what we call the mission of the individual Folk-souls of humanity..., because the coming destinies of humanity will bring people together in a common human mission to a much greater degree than has been the case so far. However, the members of individual nations will only be able to make their corresponding free, concrete contribution to this common mission if, above all, they have an understanding of their national character—an understanding of what might be called self-knowledge of their national character.” The time has surely come when the destinies of humanity themselves teach us that there is truth in such a view.

[ 4 ] Perhaps the topic of “Folk-souls” is precisely one that demonstrates how spiritual contemplation—which delves into the true supersensible essence of existence—simultaneously provides a genuinely practical outlook on life that sheds light even on the most specific questions of life. A view of life that relies solely on mental images—which are rightly applied to the natural sciences—for the development and nature of peoples cannot do this. This mechanistic-physical science has achieved great things in the production of mechanical, physical, and chemical cultural resources; but the cultural resources of humanity’s spiritual life require a science oriented toward the spiritual. Our time needs such a science.

Berlin, February 8, 1918.
Rudolf Steiner