INTRODUCTION for (eBook - Antroposofia - EnG) - Rudolf Steiner - The Case for Anthroposophy

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Esonet – La Tradizione Iniziatica tra Oriente e Occidentehttp://www.esonet.org1

The

Case

for

Anthroposophy

Selections

from

Von

Seelenrätseln

By

Rudolf

Steiner

GA

21

The

Case

for

Anthroposophy

contains

English

translations

of

eight

of

the

eleven

essays

appearing

in

the

German

original

entitled

Von

Seelenraetseln

.

The

three

sections

in

the

German

original

which

do

not

appear

in

the

English

translation

are:

Max

Dessoir

on

Anthroposophy,

Franz

Brentano

(a

memorial

address),

and

The

Separation

of

the

Psychological

from

the

Non

‐

Psychological

in

Franz

Brentano.

Copyright

©

1970

This

e.Text

edition

is

provided

with

the

cooperation

of:

Esonet – La Tradizione Iniziatica tra Oriente e Occidentehttp://www.esonet.org2

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I

ANTHROPOLOGY

AND

ANTHROPOSOPHY

II

THE

PHILOSOPHICAL

BEARING

OF

ANTHROPOSOPHY

III

CONCERNING

THE

LIMITS

OF

KNOWLEDGE

IV

CONCERNING

ABSTRACTION

V

CONCERNING

THE

NATURE

OF

SPIRITUAL

PERCEPTION

VI

REPLY

TO

A

FAVOURITE

OBJECTION

VII

PRINCIPLES

OF

PSYCHOSOMATIC

PHYSIOLOGY

VIII

THE

REAL

BASIS

OF

INTENTIONAL

RELATION

Esonet – La Tradizione Iniziatica tra Oriente e Occidentehttp://www.esonet.org3

INTRODUCTION

by

Owen

Barfield

The

prolonged

historical

event

now

usually

referred

to

as

“the

scientific

revolution”

was

characterised

by

the

appearance

of

a

new

attitude

to

the

element

of

sense

perception

in

the

total

human

experience.

At

first

as

an

instinct,

then

as

a

waxing

habit,

and

finally

as

a

matter

of

deliberate

choice,

it

came

to

be

accepted

that

this

element

is,

for

the

purposes

of

knowledge,

the

only

reliable

one;

and

further

that

it

is

possible,

and

indeed

necessary,

to

isolate,

in

a

way

that

had

not

hitherto

been

thought

possible,

this

one

element

from

all

the

others

that

go

to

make

up

man’s

actual

experience

of

the

world.

The

word

“matter”

came

to

signify,

in

effect,

that

which

the

senses

can,

or

could,

perceive

without

help

from

the

mind,

or

from

any

other

source

not

itself

perceptible

by

the

senses.

Whereas

hitherto

the

perceptible

and

the

imperceptible

had

been

felt

as

happily

intermixed

with

one

another,

and

had

been

explored

on

that

footing,

the

philosopher

Descartes

finally

formulated

the

insulation

of

matter

from

mind

as

a

philosophical

principle,

and

the

methodology

of

natural

science

is

erected

on

that

principle.

It

was

by

the

rigorous

exclusion

from

its

field,

under

the

name

of

“occult

qualities”,

of

every

element,

whether

spiritual

or

mental

or

called

by

any

other

name,

which

can

only

be

conceived

as

non

‐

material,

and

therefore

non

‐

measurable,

that

natural

knowledge

acquired

a

precision

unknown

before

the

revolution

—

because

inherently

impossible

in

terms

of

the

old

fusion;

and,

armed

with

that

precision

(entitling

it

to

the

name

of

“science”),

went

on

to

achieve

its

formidable

technological

victories.

It

is

the

elimination

of

occult

qualities

from

the

purview

of

science

that

constitutes

the

difference

between

astrology

and

astronomy,

between

alchemy

and

chemistry,

and

in

general

the

difference

between

Aristotelian

man

and

his

environment

in

the

past

and

modern

man

and

his

environment

in

the

present.

When

two

mutually

dependent

human

relatives

are

separated,

so

that,

for

the

first

time,

one

of

them

can

“go

it

alone”,

there

may

be

drawbacks,

but

it

is

the

advantages

that

are

often

most

immediately

evident.

By

freeing

itself

from

the

taint

of

“occult

qualities”,

that

is,

by

meticulously

disentangling

itself

from

all

reference,

explicit

or

implicit,

to

non

‐

material

factors,

the

material

world,

as

a

field

of

knowledge,

gained

inestimable

advantages.

We

perhaps

take

them

for

granted

now;

but

the

men

of

the

seventeenth

century

—

the

members

of

the

Royal

Society

for

instance

had

a

prophetic

inkling

of

what

the

new

liberty

promised.

You

have

only

to

read

some

of

their

pronouncements.

For

them

it

was

an

emotional

as

well

as

an

intellectual

experience.

“Bliss

was

it

in

that

dawn

to

be

alive

...”

But

when

two

people

separate,

so

that

one

of

them

can

go

it

alone,

it

follows

as

a

natural

consequence

that

the

other

can

also

go

it

alone.

It

might

have

been

expected,

then,

that,

by

of 00

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