The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Thirteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we attempted to gain a more precise understanding of that world which surrounds us in such a way that we share it with those who have passed through the gate of death, and which we also share with those spiritual-soul entities that we count among the beings of the higher hierarchies. In doing so, we have engaged in a contemplation that is suited to revealing to us a part of that reality which influences human life, even though human beings, with their sensory perception and their intellect—which is bound to that sensory perception—cannot know anything of it in their ordinary waking consciousness. Since this world is a reality—a reality that plays a part in shaping human life—it is quite understandable that in the era we are now living through, in which human beings are increasingly called upon, out of their own free will—as we have often said — to take the general destiny of human development into their own hands—that in such a time, knowledge of these supersensible things also sinks into the human soul. We concluded yesterday’s meditation with the suggestion that this is particularly necessary in our time; a meditation on the life of the so-called dead must be deeply penetrating for every individual human soul. On the other hand, however, there must also be an intense need to reflect more deeply on precisely such matters, such as those we touched upon yesterday in our meditation. For in our time, even half-awake people, even dreamers, should sense that extraordinarily important decisions are taking shape.

[ 2 ] Here and there, in the course of our discussions, I have repeatedly and time and again made allusions to what can be said—based on the sources of spiritual research—about the character of the modern era, the character of our own time, and the near future. Such insights, however, could only be presented to present-day humanity—and even to those with an anthroposophical outlook—in a cautious manner. Just take a look at how much insight into the nature of this very difficult, catastrophic time of ours is contained in the lectures on the souls of nations that were given in Kristiania many years before these catastrophic events. And perhaps it is also worth recalling that at a time when it would surely have been necessary, in one way or another, to point out the gravity of the impulses at work—in the lecture series held in Vienna in early spring 1914 —that is, before the outbreak of our present global catastrophe—social life and human coexistence in our time were discussed in such a way that I chose a sharp, forceful expression at the time: In those lectures, which essentially dealt with human life between death and a new birth, I spoke of the fact that something is taking place in the moral and social life of the present that can be described as a social carcinoma, as a terrible social cancer. Perhaps some people at the time found that to be a strong expression. But perhaps some have since come to realize that the facts themselves support the fact that such a strong expression was indeed justified at the time.

[ 3 ] However, what I already hinted at yesterday is true and should give us serious pause for thought: Despite all this—and even though one can easily sense what grave forces are at work in our time—humanity today is little inclined to truly grasp the gravity of these phenomena. Humanity today is far too complacent; it is far too eager to indulge in those convenient concepts found in the scientific worldview, because these concepts can be derived from external experience, because they require little inner mental effort, and yet they flatter human vanity so greatly. But what is necessary is for humanity—precisely with regard to so much of what the present age must teach—to awaken, to truly awaken, and not to continue sleeping. This awakening, however, will only be possible if certain deeper facts are no longer regarded as mere fantasy or daydreaming, but as a reality that plays a role in the events of our time. And so I have often hinted, in the course of our discussions, at how a significant turning point occurred for humanity, particularly in the last third of the 19th century. I have also alluded to these things here in Stuttgart. Let us once again bring them to mind today from a certain perspective.

[ 4 ] I have identified the fall of 1879 as the turning point in this development of humanity in modern times. If one wishes to understand this development of humanity in modern times more precisely, one must say: What took place in the last third of the 19th century is merely the effect of something that had previously unfolded in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, it began in the 1840s. And the period from the 1840s to the end of the 1870s is an important, essential, and significant time. What took place then did not occur on the physical plane; but in 1879, the aftereffects descended onto the physical plane, and since that time, these aftereffects have been unfolding on the physical plane. They are a kind of reflection of what had previously taken place in the spiritual world. If one were to describe what underlies this, one could say: It is, in a particular realm within a specific sphere, the manifestation of what otherwise frequently occurs in the evolution of humanity—and what has always been described by those who were still able to observe such things as a battle between Michael and the dragon. In a wide variety of fields, such struggles have taken place between normally progressing spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies and spirits of obstacles and hindrances. For the cultural development of humanity, such a struggle in the spiritual realms—specifically in those spiritual realms immediately adjacent to the Earth—took place during the decades from the 1840s to the end of the 1870s. Back then, in 1879, this battle ended in a victory—if one may put it that way—of the forces of good over certain spirits of obstruction who, at that time—one might well say—had been cast down from the spiritual worlds into earthly conditions, so that they have been active and at work in earthly conditions ever since. Within the course of humanity’s spiritual development, there are spirits of obstruction who were only cast down into the lower world at the end of the 1870s as defeated spirits—defeated in the higher world—and who now reign within human beings.

[ 5 ] If one looks at these spirits of obstacles—these spirits of an Ahrimanic nature—with whom the spirits that can be called Michaelic spirits have waged a fierce battle, one must say: These Ahrimanic spirits had their positive significance in past epochs of human development; they had their tasks in past epochs of spiritual development. These tasks were carried out in such a way that they were guided by good, higher spirits. We must not imagine the so-called evil spirits in such a way that we think we need only flee from them in order to rid ourselves of them as much as possible. For that is, in fact, the best way to bind them to oneself if one seeks to rid oneself of them in a selfish manner; rather, one must imagine that these so-called evil spirits are also in the service of the wise world order. If they are simply placed in their proper place, then they perform services that are necessary in the sense of the wise world order. And so one can say: For centuries, indeed for millennia, these spirits of Ahrimanic nature have carried out the task of organizing human beings into those communal contexts that have to do with the bonds of blood. After all, human beings are connected in their earthly associations in such a way that the bonds of blood also trigger and bring about certain bonds of love. Human beings organize themselves into family groups, tribal groups, national groups, and racial groups. All these things are, of course, subject to certain laws of the ages. These are directed by beings of the higher worlds. That which humanity has specialized, that which humanity has structured in such a way that this structure is based on blood, was guided by these Ahrimanic spirits, but under the direction of good spirits.

[ 6 ] But now a new era was to dawn. As long as human beings were, so to speak, guided by the blood, they could not, as has often been suggested, take their destiny into their own hands. For this to happen, it was necessary that the influence of these Ahrimanic spirits, as it was, be eliminated from the spiritual world. At first, these spirits sought to continue their activity from the spiritual world, dividing humanity according to bloodlines; but humanity was to be driven toward a more universal understanding of its entire spirit. What is often said, particularly in our field—that humanity must understand itself as a whole across the Earth—is truly no mere phrase, but a necessity of the modern age. And this is based precisely on the fact that a fierce, intense struggle took place between the Michaelic spirits and the spirits of an Ahrimanic nature, which had previously differentiated human beings according to blood.

[ 7 ] This struggle ended with the Ahrimanic beings being cast down and now reigning among humankind. Among human beings, they will sow confusion, for that is their intention following this defeat: to sow confusion using everything that can be drawn from all manner of concepts and ideas connected with blood ties and kinship. It is particularly important to note that, since the last third of the 19th century, these impulses have been at work in everything that human beings can bring about here on the physical plane through thoughts and feelings, and that one cannot understand reality without taking these impulses into account. The way in which certain ethnic relations and the like are discussed today has been confused by these Ahrimanic spirits, who have been defeated by the spirit of Michael.

[ 8 ] I have often mentioned that we can already say: Since the end of the 1970s, we have been in what is known as the Michaelic Age. We must regard Michael as a time spirit who has succeeded Gabriel as the time spirit. This means a great deal: Michael as a time spirit! The time spirits that were present in earlier centuries worked differently than this time spirit. The other time spirits that influenced human development in earlier centuries still acted, to a greater or lesser extent, upon the subconscious. The task of the Michaelic spirit of the age, which has been active in the course of human history since the last third of the 19th century, is this: to trigger, more and more, within human consciousness itself, that which is to take place in the development of the Earth. For this Michaelic spirit of the age has, in fact, descended and is active on the physical plane of the Earth.

[ 9 ] All of this is connected to something about our time that is extremely easy to misunderstand. Our time is a very, very ambivalent one. If one were to describe it superficially, one could easily call our time merely materialistic. But that is not all there is to it; the matter is much more complicated. On the whole, one can say: This modern era is, in its fundamental character, extraordinarily spiritual—indeed, exceptionally spiritual. And there have never before been in the history of human development concepts or ideas more spiritual than those brought to the surface by modern natural science. Yet these concepts—if I may put it this way—are thin; they are abstract. In and of themselves, in terms of their substance, they are thoroughly spiritual; but as they appear—if they are not handled properly—they are not suited to expressing the spiritual. These scientific concepts, which are instilled in all education today, are a very double-edged sword, if I may use this paradoxical metaphor. One can use them as they are used today by academic science. There, although they are spiritual, they are applied only to the outer material world; their spirituality is denied. But one can also apply these scientific concepts in such a way that they are used as material for meditation—that one meditates on them. Then they lead most reliably into the spiritual world. If those who hold a scientific worldview today were not too lazy to apply their concepts meditatively, these people with a scientific worldview would very soon find their way into spiritual science. It is not the content of scientific concepts that is the issue, but the way they are handled. The concepts are subtle and intimate, but people’s application of them is rooted in a materialistic mindset. Admittedly, this is not immediately clear in every detail, but we must come to an understanding; therefore, we must allow some of these truths to approach us, so to speak, only through a reflection.

[ 10 ] Thus, people live in concepts, in notions, in ideas that are ethereal—that, I would say, are pure, distilled spirit—so that one need only apply a strong force to move from them to spiritual science; and these concepts are precisely those that are to enter human development through the Michaelic Age. But they are also the ones who are most confused by the Ahrimanic spirits of obstruction—which, one might say, have been cast down from heaven to earth and overcome by Michael in heaven. They appear in so many countless areas where people today believe they are thinking quite correctly, reasoning quite correctly, yet where they are highly exposed to the confusion caused by these spirits.

[ 11 ] It is precisely when considering such a matter that we see how development—let us focus on humanity for now—actually takes place. Here we must bring to mind an important law of development, which we must also consider from other perspectives. It is, after all, an incredibly superficial way of looking at things to assume that events in historical life simply unfold in such a way that what happens in 1918 is a consequence of 1917, 1916, and so on. That is a superficial way of looking at things. Things unfold quite differently; they unfold in such a way that whatever has happened in the spiritual realm continues to have an effect in the times that follow, but in a certain way. One can single out any given year; let us take, for example, the year 1879: in 1880, something happens that is partly determined by the retroactive repetition of what occurred in 1878; in 1881, what happened in 1877 repeats itself retroactively in a certain respect, and so on. One can take any point in human development as a starting point, however contradictory that may seem; one will always find that earlier cycles manifest themselves in later ones through significant impulses. One can therefore expect that, particularly during an important period, this law will also intervene in human development with special clarity and significance.

[ 12 ] I have hinted at this many times before; even before these catastrophic events, I have often spoken of the important period of 1879, and of the fact that it is merely the result of what has been taking place in the spiritual world since the 1840s. If we now apply this law that I have just stated, we can say the following: 1879 is a significant period; certain spirits were cast down who had previously acted as spirits of obstruction in the spiritual world, and who from that point on have been working here on the physical plane among human beings to hinder and confuse them. What happened in 1879 is, in a sense, the conclusion of an earlier phase that began between 1841 and 1844 and continued to exert its influence through the decades. If we now take the year 1841, we have the period of struggle in the spiritual world from 1841 to 1879. Those beings who are under the rule of the spirit known as Michael—one could also refer to him by another name—thus set out in 1841 to engage in the intense, fierce struggle in the spiritual world, which then came to an end for the spiritual world in 1879. It thus lasted thirty-eight years. Now I said: What happens in the past has a retroactive effect on the period that follows. — Count forward from 1879 by another thirty-eight years: 1917. Just as what happened in 1878 repeats itself in 1880, and what happened in 1877 repeats itself in 1881, so too does what was undertaken in 1841 in the spiritual world as one of the most important struggles repeat itself in a certain way in 1917 within the physical world. It is indeed the case that the year 1879 marks a turning point that reveals very powerful impulses both forward and backward in our perspective. And in a certain sense, the events of 1917 and 1918 are now repeating on the physical plane what had to take place in the spiritual world in the 1840s—events that can be described as a struggle between the normal, forward-driving spirits and certain spirits of obstruction. This is not a conclusion I am drawing for the first time today; rather, many of you know that these events have always been pointed out, and that from the perspective of these events, the year 1917 must be viewed as an important starting point for subsequent developments.

[ 13 ] Of course, one must not view things in such a way as to say: Well, we lived through the year 1917.” Certainly, we lived through it; but as for what the events that took place that year actually were, only a few people truly experienced them, since few people are inclined to evaluate them with a clear, conscious mind. That is what this is all about.

[ 14 ] Well, by mentioning all these things, I simply wanted to point out that we are indeed living at a crucial juncture in human development, and that it is indeed necessary to take certain matters more seriously at this juncture than they are generally taken by the masses of humanity today. I have, after all, pointed out how particularly necessary it is not to ignore the normal spiritual impulses in our time. As this more recent era has taken shape, what has actually come to set the tone in it? What has truly gained influence in this more recent era? What, then, has permeated—I might say—the entire realm of general education? Essentially, only that which has grown out of the crudest aspect of the scientific worldview. Yet this crudest aspect of the scientific worldview has the power to grasp only the dead, the lifeless—never the living—which is precisely what is so infinitely necessary in this scientific age. People today are still quite unwilling to recognize the connection between such things and general world events. People today are still unwilling to recognize that the more humanity strives to develop only concepts that relate to the dead, the more it destroys social life and community life as well. It is necessary to set scientific concepts in motion and enliven them in such a way that they can truly be applied to human coexistence—that they are, so to speak, capable of explaining human coexistence as well.

[ 15 ] The course of development has indeed been as follows in recent times, in the very latest period: within what has been accepted as true science, only those concepts were developed that allow us to understand external, inanimate nature. These concepts were entirely unsuitable for grasping human life. Yet people sought to use them to grasp human life. And so the official scientists applied these concepts to history, to the social sciences, to social policy, and so on. But these concepts are not useful in those contexts, and so there is no useful concept at all for social life; consequently, social life on Earth has become too much for humanity to handle, turning into what it has been for nearly four years now. People will have to learn to refine their concepts and to breathe life into them.

[ 16 ] What natural scientists themselves develop is certainly ingenious, useful, and conscientiously methodical—but only with regard to external nature. Today, everyone works in their own field and does not at all extend the concepts developed in any one field to encompass the entirety of the human worldview. Take just one example, and you will immediately understand what I actually mean. The typical high school physics teacher, observing a magnetic needle today that points north with one end and south with the other, explains to his students that this constant pointing of the magnetic needle toward the north and south stems from the Earth’s magnetism—that the Earth, too, is a giant magnet; and it would be ridiculous if this school physics teacher were to look within the magnetic needle itself for the forces that cause it to point in these directions. He seeks to explain it in terms of the Earth’s properties; he seeks the cause in the cosmos outside. In this purely abstract realm, scientific concepts are still of some use; one can still arrive at one conclusion or another. Therefore, it does not occur to anyone to say that the magnetic needle possesses within itself the power to always point in one direction. One assumes that the forces come from the Earth’s magnetic north and south poles. The biologist, however, no longer does this. It does not even occur to him to formulate a similar concept. The biologist sees the chicken in which the egg is formed. It does not even occur to him to pose the same question in the same way that the physicist poses it regarding the magnetic needle. The biologist simply says: When the egg forms inside the hen, the cause of the egg’s formation lies within the hen. If he were to proceed as the physicist does with the magnetic needle, he would say to himself: Although the hen is the place where the egg forms, just as the cosmos influences the magnetic needle, so too do cosmic forces influence the formation of the egg. I must step outside the narrowly defined realm of nature and draw upon what lies beyond. Although the hen contains the site where the egg germ forms, the forces act upon it from the cosmos, just as they direct the magnetic needle from the cosmos.

[ 17 ] It is urgently necessary to develop such a concept and apply it methodically. But to official biology, it is foolish, fanciful, and ridiculous, because it has completely strayed into a dead-end of the dead. This official science cannot even apply comprehensive concepts to such matters, much less say anything about how people might live together politically or socially in the right way. How can one hope that something so necessary for humanity—namely, a revitalization, a renewal of these concepts—could emerge from this purely natural-scientific worldview? This is precisely impossible in the crucial realm of human life. Let us clarify this using a concept that we wish to grasp from the perspective of the humanities.

[ 18 ] Even a mere observation of the human skeleton reveals something extraordinarily important—something, I would say, magnificent. When you look at the human skeleton, you see the head, which is actually just perched on top of the rest of the torso; it is a world unto itself. The other part of the skeleton is formed quite differently. As soon as one applies Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis, one does indeed see the transformation of the torso into the head skeleton, but the head skeleton is spherical in shape; the head is a reflection of the entire cosmic sphere. The other part is shaped more like the moon. This is something extraordinarily essential and points out to us that if we wish to derive fruitful concepts about human beings simply from their form, we must look for such things as are already hinted at in the form itself. Our natural science is indeed magnificent, but it is illiterate when it comes to understanding the world. It proceeds like someone who does not read the pages of a book but merely describes them: “A is like this, B is like that”—that is, someone who does not read but merely describes the letters. But we must progress to reading; we must learn not merely to describe the forms of nature as natural science does, but to interpret them in their relationships and transitions. Then, through reading the forms and phenomena of nature, one arrives at unraveling the meaning of the world. Certainly, people who hear such things today and, with their narrow-mindedness, are completely mired in this illiteracy, find such a notion, when it is expressed, utterly horrifying. One could cite good examples of how people find something horrifying that is drawn from the human skeleton, but which can be extended to the entire human organism. The human being is a dual nature, and this dual nature is already expressed in the stark contrast between the head and the rest of the organism.

[ 19 ] If we now examine these two aspects of dual nature through spiritual science—we could mention further aspects, but that is not the point today—we can already discern something immensely significant from the mere form of the human being, provided we truly delve into it. From a spiritual scientific perspective, one can see that the human head undergoes a development from birth through the physical earthly life that differs from the development of the rest of the organism just as much as the head itself differs in form from the rest of the organism. It is very interesting to observe that this head develops three to four times faster than the rest of the organism. When we consider the rest of the organism, we can refer to it by a common name, insofar as it is primarily organized by the heart, so that we then have a contrast between the head organism and the heart organism. This heart organism actually develops three to four times more slowly than the head organism. If we were nothing but head, we would already be old people preparing to die by the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, because the head develops so quickly. The rest of the organism develops four times more slowly, and so we live well into our seventies and eighties. But this does not change the fact that we do indeed have a head development and a heart development—that we carry these two natures within us. Our head development is also generally fully complete by the age of twenty-eight; the head no longer develops further. What develops from then on is the rest of the organism. It, too, sends developmental rays into the head of its own accord. Anyone who is able to observe the form—the characteristic features of physical development—could, even from external signs, if not arrive at this fact itself, at least find confirmation of it. One must, of course, arrive at this through spiritual science. But consider: who has not looked at a small child and, upon seeing it again later, said to themselves, “This child has only come to resemble so-and-so in later years”? — This is connected to the fact that the forces of heredity are actually located in the rest of the organism. The head is formed entirely from the cosmos; and only when the forces of heredity begin to work from the rest of the organism—a process that proceeds more slowly—does the physiognomy of the head also come to resemble that of the rest of the organism. This is just one example of how external facts can confirm what spiritual science discovers. It is important to note this: The head undergoes its development much more rapidly than the rest of the organism.

[ 20 ] You see, knowing this was not so important in earlier times, when people were less free and were more guided. Back then, the good spiritual powers took care of things. They, so to speak, struck a balance between the pace of intellectual development and the pace of other forms of development, bringing them into harmony. Now the time is beginning when human beings themselves must ensure that such things are brought into harmony. Therefore, human beings must be able to understand such things correctly, must be able to respond to them, and they sin against evolution if they cannot do so. And we have an important area of human life where terrible sins are being committed against these things. This sin is already manifesting itself sporadically today because we have been stuck in this situation since the last third of the 19th century. It will manifest itself in a terrible way if people are unable to comprehend the spiritual impulses. Today, it is initially expressed in the following way: People fail to take into account that, for a human being to develop normally, they must be given something that accounts for the fact that the development of their head proceeds three to four times faster than that of the rest of the organism. And one area where this manifests itself in a particularly harmful way is that of education and instruction, for the following reasons: Under the influence of the scientific worldview, concepts have emerged that have gradually become mere concepts for intellectual development, concepts that contribute nothing to the rest of a person’s development—concepts that are acquired at the same pace as the intellect develops, but cannot be assimilated at the pace at which the rest of the organism develops.

[ 21 ] This says an extraordinary amount. Our times have gradually given rise to a multitude of ideas that occupy the mind but leave the heart cold and empty. As I said, they are already appearing sporadically today; but these things will take hold more and more. You can test this for yourself if you observe life closely. For because of the dichotomy between the development of the mind and the heart, human beings depend on not receiving merely an intellectual education in their youth. In youth, the mind is naturally given priority, because the other aspects develop more slowly. If one were to educate people for the rest of their lives as thoroughly as for the mind, one would have to keep them in school their entire lives. School education can address only the head. But today, the head is treated in such a way that it cannot give anything back—spiritually or emotionally—to the rest of the organism. The rest of the organism, after all, transmits its inherited impulses to the head throughout one’s entire life; otherwise, we would die at the age of twenty-seven, for the head is predisposed to this. But the head, in turn, should also pass on what is nurtured within it. You can test whether today’s education fails to do this by asking yourself: Isn’t it true that people today who receive a school-based education remember only the emotional aspects in later life? — Most of the time they don’t even do that; rather, they are glad if they can forget everything quickly. This simply means that the rest of the organism observes the development of the head. If the rest of the organism were to receive from the head—as the essence of life—what it needs, then one would not merely recall things by memory, but would look back on what the teacher gave one as if it were a paradise—a place one reflects upon every hour in later life with deep satisfaction and affection, a place into which one immerses oneself again and again, and in which one finds a source of rejuvenation. It would be a source of rejuvenation if it included the cultivation of the heart, not merely that of the mind. Then, throughout one’s entire life, a person would derive something from childhood education and from school for the rest of the organism—which develops four times more slowly—and this would also have a beneficial effect on one’s organism. Today this is only just beginning, and it will become worse and worse. People will grow old prematurely because, at best, they will only be able to recall—in terms of memory—what they have absorbed solely for the head, and which is thus only meaningful up to the age of twenty-seven. After that, it comes to a standstill—useless things that one recalls—and the person ages. He grows old inwardly, emotionally and spiritually, at an early age, because intellectual development is not suited to flowing over into the four times slower development of the heart.

[ 22 ] These things must be taken into account. But if they are to be taken into account, then our school education must become something entirely different; it must replace the dead concepts that prevail everywhere today with living concepts. With a Kant-Laplacean theory, people will always look back on it in such a way that they grow old in the process. What is truly real—the spiritual-soul starting point of our universe, from which the physical world first developed—will, if properly incorporated into the curriculum, be a lifelong source of rejuvenation. And it is possible to structure the curriculum not merely through methodological means, but through a complete reworking in the anthroposophical sense, so that throughout their entire lives, people have something they do not merely recall intellectually, but which serves as a lifelong source of continuous rejuvenation. This must be consciously achieved so that people are not old men and women by the time they are barely fifty years old, but so that they can still draw inner, spiritual nourishment from what they absorbed in their youth; so that they can have a source of refreshment, a refreshing elixir, in what they absorbed as children. But this must be provided in such a way that it is not merely suitable for the development of the mind, but also for the development of the entire human organism, which proceeds three to four times more slowly than the development of the mind.

[ 23 ] To understand such things means to breathe life into concepts that are dead to the natural scientist—and therefore also to our general education. Do not underestimate the great social significance of what is being said here. You might think that this is only relevant where the natural sciences in the narrower sense are at work. That is not true. Natural science, after all, influences all of today’s education and the entire spectrum of humanity’s current development. These scientific concepts extend all the way into the Sunday papers; and even those who draw everything that constitutes their faith today—the real and true faith they feign toward their church or their office—solely from their Sunday papers are today infected by natural science, which can offer only the dead, even if this dead matter is viewed in the most spiritual way. These things must be clearly understood.

[ 24 ] So you see: Anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is truly not merely something that can satisfy subjective curiosity, but something that is destined to have a profound impact on the entire course of our historical development. And again, this impact on our historical development is, for our consciousness—which can be trained through anthroposophy—linked to the understanding of what took place in human evolution from 1841 to 1879 and up to 1917, both supersensually and sensually, above the physical plane and on the physical plane. One cannot take these things seriously enough. For much—indeed, quite a great deal—has not been taken seriously in recent times. And the healing of humanity will have to consist precisely in people once again taking the time to absorb impressions, concepts, and feelings regarding the development of the world. Just reflect on these things for a moment!

[ 25 ] If you look back over the last few decades: what, apart from a few individuals, has the world that sets the tone actually done with regard to questions of worldview—with major questions of worldview? At most, it has allowed scientific concepts to be popularized in some way, and has used these scientific concepts—which it has allowed to be popularized through modern means—to present all sorts of highly illustrative demonstrations. Whenever it was possible to announce that something from the natural sciences would be presented with slides, it caused quite a stir and was met with great enthusiasm. What, then, has the leading social class actually done with questions of worldview in modern times? People took a keen interest whenever someone could recount their experiences as an Arctic explorer or a researcher in Brazil. There is no fault to be found in taking an interest in such things. When someone spoke about having somehow unraveled the mysteries of the May beetle’s germ, people felt it was necessary—as well-educated, middle-class individuals of the modern era—to listen to such lectures, even if, unless a photograph had just caught their attention, they had drifted off to sleep after five minutes. But where, exactly, is the genuine will to elevate the human idea to a worldview? Where it did exist is very telling, and everyone today is actually compelled to reflect on this. Where have the most vigorous debates on worldviews and the greatest interest in worldview issues been taking place for decades? Where the Social Democrats held their meetings. That is where worldviews were formed. People in other social classes simply do not know this because they likely go to great lengths to avoid truly getting to know human life.

[ 26 ] But what kind of worldview do the Social Democrats develop? One that operates solely with the same concepts that are ingrained in the machinery; a worldview that forms its perspectives on the world solely through mechanical means: historical materialism, a materialist conception of history, a materialist conception of human coexistence. You can, of course, read about these concepts in any socialist journal. Most people don’t, but it would be quite useful to do so in order to inform oneself. Those people who have been crammed into the machines, who have nothing else to do from morning till night, and who, when they leave the machines in the evening, are once again confronted with a social institution that is essentially a reflection of the machine—they have a worldview that regards the world as if it were a machine. They have developed a worldview that takes no account of anything individual, one that spans everything through the equalizing concept of death. There is a quite good, true proverb: “Death makes everything equal”—but one could also say: A worldview that concerns itself only with the mechanical, the dead, also makes everything equal, erases all individual existence, all life. — Thus, all individual existence, all life, would be obliterated by a worldview that takes its ideal from the machine. As long as the matter did not become urgent, people let these things happen to them in a dreamlike, sleep-like state; they behaved in such a way that they rejected all questions of worldview and gradually lost touch with all the impulses that can permeate human community life and human educational life in an understanding way. And, fundamentally speaking, in recent times work on questions of worldview has been limited to areas where mechanical concepts were applied. Science, too, has provided only mechanical concepts. If you take Theodor Ziehen’s book—which serves as a model for modern science—and read the concluding chapters, you will see that he, too, belongs to those who say: Natural science cannot arrive at concepts that ethics, morality, and aesthetics provide; yet subsequently, concepts are developed that assert that everything that is not natural science is merely imagined nonsense. Between the lines, everything that is not scientific is slandered. There, at the end, Theodor Ziehen does say graciously: Concepts such as freedom, ethics, morality, and so on must come from other sources; only the concept of responsibility—that is something true science should actually reject. A human being can be no more responsible than any flower can be held responsible for its ugliness. — This is absolutely correct from a natural scientific standpoint, if one stands one-sidedly on the ground of natural science, if one applies mere concepts of the dead. But then one is applying concepts that do not even pertain to the living, much less to the self.

[ 27 ] It is interesting, in fact, how Theodor Ziehen speaks about the “I.” In these lectures, which were transcribed and then printed so as to capture the tone of the lecture, he says about the “I”: Gentlemen, the “I” is a complicated concept; if you think about what you actually mean when you hear the little word “I,” what comes to mind

[ 28 ] You? First, your physicality. Then your family relationships. Then your property relationships. Then think of your name and title—he leaves out the orders—and then..., well, all sorts of things like that. And what, he believes, some psychologists have developed is merely a fiction. Yes, even the natural scientist, when speaking of the “I,” can come to nothing other than what no one actually thinks about when they take the matter seriously, when they look the “I” in the eye. But the serious reality is that what has been developed as concepts solely from the dead must also lead to the killing, the destruction, and the devastation of life. A theory that has been fashioned from the dead machine as a social worldview theory, when introduced into life, has a destructive rather than a constructive effect. Humanity has not resolved to understand this; it must therefore experience it in its most extreme form. For what has happened? In that region where springs of immense impulses for the future will one day well up—in the East—the “dead theory,” the continuation of the mechanistic worldview in social ideologies, in Leninism and Trotskyism, is having a destructive effect.

[ 29 ] Just consider the matter very seriously. Anyone who acknowledges only what is dead—and acknowledges only what is dead even in human beings—no matter how great a scholar he may be, like Theodor Ziehen, if he speaks of the “I” and of responsibility the way Theodor Ziehen does, then his true social interpreter is not himself—who does not dare to do so—but rather Lenin and Trotsky are the ones who draw the correct conclusions for human society. What Lenin and Trotsky set forth are the consequences of what is already cultivated by the purely scientific worldview. But because this scientific worldview makes compromises with what is not a consequence of this worldview—precisely because it does not draw the necessary conclusions—it is not Leninism or Trotskyism.

[ 30 ] But it also matters that things be taken in the sense of reality. What is not true appears as something objective. Thoughts are realities; they are not mere concepts. One cannot simply say: Even if no one is aware of a lie, it still exerts power. — That is true, but something else is also true: If a lie exists that is not recognized as a lie, this does not alter its effect; it functions as a lie in the real world. And no matter how well-intentioned it may be, it still functions as a lie.

[ 31 ] There are already works today—I may have mentioned this here before—that address the question of Christ Jesus from the standpoint of sound contemporary scientific thought. These are very interesting books because they take an uncompromising approach. Above all, there is a Danish book. There are also others that truly articulate what the modern psychologist, the modern psychiatrist—who thinks in scientific terms—must think about Jesus Christ. What does Jesus Christ become in this view? He becomes an epileptic, a pathological individual, a person with a pathological disposition. And the Gospels are interpreted in such a way that in every chapter one sees: they are medical case histories. Of course, this is all nonsense; but today, only those who have spiritually penetrated the matter have the right to say that it is nonsense. From the standpoint of those who accept modern scientific psychology and psychiatry, this teaching of Christ is the correct one, because it draws the correct conclusion. And a person who speaks in this way as a modern psychiatrist is still a better person, a truer and more honest person than someone who accepts modern psychiatry yet thinks of Christ in a different sense—in the sense of those pastors or ministers who also fully accept the natural sciences and yet make compromises.

[ 32 ] A lie is effective, no matter how piously it is disguised, because it is a real power. Above all, what is necessary today is not to obscure life with compromises, but to focus everywhere on what must be focused on, based on certain premises. If the modern psychiatrist does not wish to view Christ as an epileptic or a madman—which he would be according to contemporary psychiatry—then he must abandon psychiatry as it is currently practiced; then he must stand on the ground of spiritual science. If people today were able to stand firmly on the foundations of what can be known, then we would have, through what can be known, the right impulses for what must continue to take effect.

[ 33 ] A few days ago, someone slipped a little note into my hand about a book I was already familiar with—one that, in any case, had caused the lady—for it must surely be a lady—to be horrified. The note explains what Alexander Moszkowski has written. I don’t have the book here, but from the note you’ll be able to grasp the book’s content: “Anyone who has ever sat in the desks of a high school will find those hours unforgettable—the hours when they ‘enjoyed’ Plato’s dialogues between Socrates and his friends—unforgettable because of the fabulous boredom that emanates from these dialogues. And one might recall that one actually found Socrates’ dialogues thoroughly stupid; but of course one didn’t dare express this view, for after all, the man in question was Socrates, the ‘Greek philosopher.’ The book *Socrates the Idiot* by Alexander Moszkowski (published by Dr. Eysler & Co., Berlin) thoroughly dispels this entirely unjustified overestimation of the good Athenian. In this short, entertainingly written work, the polymath Moszkowski undertakes nothing less than to strip Socrates almost entirely of his philosophical dignity. The title “Socrates—the Idiot” is meant literally. One would not be mistaken in assuming that the book will spark further scholarly debate.”

[ 34 ] Of course, today’s compromisers will say: Well, we’ve learned well enough that Socrates was a great man, not an idiot; and now along comes Moszkowski and says something like that! — But today it is necessary to take a completely different view of such a matter. Anyone who knows Moszkowski knows that he stands, in the fullest sense of the word, on the ground of the scientific worldview—including quantum theory—and that he thus stands on the very farthest wing of today’s scientific worldview. And it must be said that this Moszkowski is a much more honest person than the others who also believe they stand on the ground of the scientific worldview, yet do not think they must regard Socrates as a fool who has nothing at all to say about the concepts important to that worldview; who nevertheless make the compromise of portraying Socrates as a great man.

[ 35 ] The reason things are not falling into place today is simply that people lack the sense of truth needed to face the consequences uncompromisingly in every situation. And anyone who wants to accept Socrates today simply cannot accept the premises set forth by Moszkowski.

[ 36 ] But that is difficult today; it has been difficult for three to four centuries now. That is why the matter was allowed to run its course until it developed into what it has become over the last three to four years. Things must be addressed at their fundamental spiritual and psychological level, where their truly deeper impulses lie. We must take this into account—and it is particularly necessary today to do so—that truth and a sense of truth may take root in the souls of human beings! Then the things that are brought into the light of this sense of truth, that are illuminated by the light of this sense of truth, will be able to reveal their true nature. Then, simply because one sees the true nature of things, one will be compelled to turn to spiritual science. For the present speaks volumes and speaks forcefully, and these matters—such as the questions of education and teaching—must be studied today through the lens of spiritual science. Just as the question of the different paces of intellectual and emotional development is important for teaching and education, so there are many questions that are fundamental, important, and significant for social life, historical life, and legal life. We need only break free from what we have buried ourselves in—from the terrible blind faith in the authority of what the natural-scientific worldview alone provides. This, at the very least, is necessary for our time. What the scientific worldview calls “real” provides concepts that can never reach into the realm of human coexistence. Humanity lives under the influence of this error today. If one looks at things more deeply, one can see this.

[ 37 ] That is what I wanted to say to you today. Let each and every one of you now draw the conclusion that what matters is to open our eyes and shed light on things with the light that we ourselves can find in the light of spiritual science.

[ 38 ] Yesterday I spoke about how our development appears to people from the East. In many respects, with their naive, intuitive spiritual faculties, people from the East perceive precisely what is compromising and inconsistent. And even now, there are critical perspectives from distinguished Eastern thinkers that are significant and worth following. In East Asia, the view is increasingly taking shape that the East must take the further development of humanity into its own hands. How could these views be dispelled if there were a greater appreciation for what is proclaimed here as spiritual science! But then this appreciation must truly be a living one; one must not merely seek something interesting in spiritual science from which to derive an inner, psychological pleasure, but one must seek something that permeates one’s entire life. And one must be able to hold the view that it is only through the insights of spiritual science that social, moral, and legal concepts can truly be grasped. What humanity has conceived under the influence of the natural-scientific worldview over the decades is no match for the spirit that reigns in reality. No, it is at best suited to those views held today by people who would like to spiritually kill the whole world, because they derive their concepts solely from the world of the dead. Future times, when people will once again think more objectively about these matters, when the passions that so often guide and direct judgments today will have died down—future times—I am fully convinced that this can be the case—will say: One of the most important characteristics of the era around 1917 was that the worldview—intended solely for the intellect and which actually drives people into a state of senility—had become a scholastic worldview. — In the future—though that future may still be far off—it will be called Wilsonism, named after the great schoolmaster from whom a large part of humanity today seeks to have a sociopolitical worldview instilled. It is no coincidence that mere academic wisdom, which has no room for the spiritual, is today one of the most important political forces in the form of Wilsonism. This is significant; it is an immensely telling symptom of our times. It is simply not possible to speak about these matters in a truly in-depth, comprehensive, and all-encompassing way today. But from my remarks today, you will have gathered how important it actually is to try to understand these things thoroughly, how infinitely important it is to consider these matters not merely out of sentiment or emotion, but out of true insight.

[ 39 ] I may have mentioned this here before, but I’ll mention it again because it’s important: It’s certainly not difficult these days to speak out about Wilson in Central Europe; but I can point out that in a lecture series given long before these events—back when the whole world, including Central Europe, admired Wilson—I characterized him exactly as I do now. The point is to approach the impulses that dominate the present age—and that dominate it as errors—from much deeper sources. Precisely in our anthroposophical field, our friends have had the opportunity to see how, long before any external compulsion arose to view things in their proper light, the truth was pointed out time and again. May these things be better understood in the future than we have chosen to understand them in the past! And I would like to emphasize this point to you in particular: Much of what comes to light in the field of our anthroposophical science can be understood infinitely better than we have so far chosen to understand it. It can penetrate even more deeply into the hearts and souls of people and be awakened to a more intense life than has been the case thus far. May it come to pass! For what results from this will be closely connected to much that can truly happen—not to the detriment, but to the benefit of humanity’s future development—and that can serve to rectify much that has been neglected and that may continue to be neglected if we are willing to listen only to what can be gained outside of spiritual science. Even among our friends, many keep two sets of accounts for their lives. One set is found in anthroposophical reflections and books, from which they gain something for the private use of their hearts and souls. The other set of accounts is for life out in the world, where they value nothing but the authority of the natural sciences. One often does not realize that this is the case; but it is good to consult one’s soul a little conscientiously in these matters, so that harmony may exist between these two accounts.

[ 40 ] After all, human life can only be managed in one way. The spirit must also penetrate the scientific worldview. And religious life, too, must be permeated by the light that can be gained through spiritual science. Take such things as were spoken and meant here today—which seemingly elevate reflections on the times to supersensible heights—and grasp them as vividly as your imagination can conceive them. Then you will see that anthroposophical education is not merely intellectual training, but that it can provide education of the heart for humanity. It is, in itself, education of the heart. It serves all of humanity, not just those who might actually die at the age of twenty-seven. It serves to make people courageous and capable of living throughout their entire lives. An education that fails to take into account the different paces of intellectual and emotional development will make a person senile, nervous, disharmonious, and torn apart. Look at life, and you will find this confirmed, for life can be a great teacher when it comes to confirming what anthroposophically oriented spiritual science brings down from the spiritual heights. Take everything that has been said to heart—especially when it is spoken from such perspectives as today’s—as words spoken to your hearts, my dear friends, for the formation of our hearts through the Spirit of the World; and hold fast to that which is meant to be the bond that unites us as members of our movement. Let us work together in this way, and let us resolve to continue working, each in our own place, to the best of our ability.