{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p007","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"It is very often emphasised nowadays by external science, that its own real importance lies in the fact that it is founded on the universal law of causes, and that everywhere it traces certain effects to their respective causes. But people are certainly much less clear as to how this linking of cause and effect takes place. For you will still find in books of the present day which are supposed to be clever and to explain ideas in quite a philosophical manner, such expressions as the following: ‘An effect is that which follows from a cause.’ But to say this is to lose sight entirely of the facts. In the case of a warm sunbeam falling on a metal plate and making it warmer than before, material science would speak of cause and effect in the ordinary way. But can we claim that the effect—the warming of the metal plate—follows from the cause of the warm sunbeam? If the warm sunbeam had this effect already *within* it why is it that it warms the metal plate only when it comes into contact with it? Hence, in the world of phenomena, in the inanimate world which is all around us, it is necessary, if an effect is to follow a cause, that something should encounter this cause. Unless this takes place one cannot speak of an effect following upon a cause. This preliminary remark, philosophical and abstract though it apparently sounds, is by no means superfluous; for if real progress is to be made in anthroposophical matters we must get into the habit of being extremely accurate in our ideas instead of being casual as people sometimes are in other branches of knowledge.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"1. The Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal and Individual; and in Humanity, the Earth and the Universe","site_heading":null,"date":"1910-05-16","location":null,"word_count":283,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/120/1910-05-16/p007","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1984","book_title":"Manifestations of Karma","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100516p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p007"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/120/1910-05-16/p007","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1910-05-16","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p007","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p007"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":298,"en_words":283,"ratio":0.95,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Es wird heute so oft von der äußeren Wissenschaft betont, daß die eigentliche Bedeutung dieser Wissenschaft darinnen liege, daß sie baue auf das umfassende Ursachengesetz, daß sie überall Wirkungen auf entsprechende Ursachen zurückführe. Wie dieses Zurückführen von Wirkungen auf Ursachen geschieht, darüber sind sich allerdings die Menschen schon viel weniger klar. Denn Sie werden wohl auch heute noch in Büchern, die da glauben, recht gelehrt zu sein und recht philosophisch die Begriffe klarzulegen, immer noch Aussprüche finden können wie etwa den: Fine Wirkung ist dasjenige, was aus einer Ursache folgt. Wenn man aber sagt, daß eine Wirkung aus einer Ursache folge, dann redet man an den Tatsachen ganz gewaltig vorbei. Denn wenn wir zum Beispiel den erwärmenden Sonnenstrahl betrachten, der auf eine Metallplatte auffällt, so daß diese Metallplatte dadurch wärmer geworden ist, dann werden wir von Ursache und Wirkung in der Welt draußen reden. Aber werden wir jemals sagen können, daß die Wirkung - die Erwärmung der Metallplatte - aus der Ursache des warmen Sonnenstrahles folge? Wenn der warme Sonnenstrahl diese Wirkung schon in sich hätte, so würde es die Tatsache nicht geben, da der warme Sonnenstrahl eine Metallplatte gar nicht erwärmt, wenn sie ihm nicht entgegenkommt. Damit in der Welt der Erscheinungen, in der leblosen Welt, die wir zunächst um uns herum haben, eine Wirkung auf eine Ursache folge, ist stets notwendig, daß dieser Ursache etwas entgegenkommt. Und ohne daß etwas der Ursache entgegenkommt, ist niemals von dem Folgen einer Wirkung auf eine Ursache zu sprechen. — Es ist nicht überflüssig, daß wir eine solche scheinbar recht philosophisch und abstrakt klingende Bemerkung vorausschicken; denn man muß sich schon einmal angewöhnen, wenn man fruchtbar vorwärtskommen will auf theosophischem Gebiete, die Begriffe recht genau zu fassen und nicht so nachlässig, wie sie zuweilen in den andern Wissenschaften gefaßt werden.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":298,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p007"}],"english":["GA 120/1910-05-16/p007"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":298,"en_words":283,"ratio":0.95,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8705,"original_word_count":8647,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1984","book_title":"Manifestations of Karma","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100516p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 120/1910-05-16/p007"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}