{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 163/1915-08-23/p025","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Certainly not! When we think of the origin of Faust, we don't picture it as having anything to do with selecting type. The creator of Faust proceeded quite differently. It would never have occurred to him that Faust could have resulted from the placement of 300,000 letters. It was totally unnecessary for Goethe to know that Faust could be composed of 300,000 letters, and yet he composed it! We might, on the one hand—and indeed we even must—picture a chaos, with things in a state of utter disorder, but conceive on the other of a good God with all the various laws in mind according to which He would arrange the world, exactly as Goethe would have done if he had been set before a typecase to bring forth his Faust. But neither God nor Goethe went to work in this fashion. What we have to picture going on in God's soul has nothing whatever to do with the whole train of thought about composition, any more than such an incredibly cleverly conceived composition applies in the case of the creation of Goethe's Faust. In other words, this whole train of thought leads to absurdity. It is brilliant, it is well reasoned, it is conscientious—all these things; yet it ends in absurdity. That comes of a conscientious person engaging in a train of thought and pursuing it, but losing sight of the actual factors that could have led to a sound conclusion.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"1. Probability and Chance, Fritz Mauthner's Studies of Improbability","site_heading":null,"date":"1915-08-23","location":null,"word_count":242,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/163/1915-08-23/p025","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Marjorie Spock","identified_edition":"AP1988","book_title":"Chance, Providence and Necessity","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA163/English/AP1988/19150823p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"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/163/1915-08-23/p025"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/163/1915-08-23/p025","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":"1915-08-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 163/1915-08-23/p017","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/163/1915-08-23/p017"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":423,"en_words":434,"ratio":1.03,"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 163/1915-08-23/p017","passage_number":17,"text":"Versuchen wir jetzt, die wir in der Geisteswissenschaft nicht bloß danach streben, dies oder jenes zu erkennen, sondern auch richtig zu denken, das heißt, überall die Faktoren in Betracht zu ziehen, die zu einem richtigen Gedankengang führen können, entsprechend dem Ernste der Geisteswissenschaft uns mit diesem Gedankengang auseinanderzusetzen. Nehmen wir den Satz noch einmal auf: Die Wahruscheinlichkeit, daß zufällig aus einem Setzerkasten heraus der Goethesche «Faust» entstehe, ist so klein, daß sie sich als 1 gebrochen durch eine Zahl von 600 000 Ziffern darstellt. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, daß die Welt durch einen solchen Urzufall entstanden ist, wäre selbstverständlich unsäglichmal kleiner. Aber der ganze «Faust» ist doch entstanden! Ist er denn auf die Weise entstanden, daß Goethe — sagen wir jetzt statt «der liebe Gott» «der liebe Goethe» - in seinem Kopfe die Gesetze gehabt hat, die aus dem Setzerkasten heraus nach den Prinzipien des Setzens die 300 000 Buchstaben zusammenordneten, so daß sie nun soldatenmäßig, reihenweise den «Faust» bildeten? Hat er denn an die Gesetze gedacht, wie man da hineingreifen muß, daß man die richtigen Buchstaben findet? - Nein! Wenn wir an die Entstehung der Goetheschen «Faust» denken, so hat die gar nichts zu tun mit dem Zusammenwürfeln! Der tut etwas ganz anderes, der den Goetheschen «Faust» entstehen läßt! Der käme gar nicht dazu, daran zu denken, daß sich aus 300000 Buchstaben der «Faust» zusammenwürfelt! Goethe brauchte nicht im entferntesten irgend etwas zu wissen, wie sich aus 300000 Buchstaben zusammenwürfeln ließe der «Faust», und er machte ihn doch! So könnten und müßten wir uns einerseits das Chaos denken, in dem meinetwillen die Dinge in wilder Weise durcheinandergewürfelt sind, und andererseits, daß der liebe Gott im Kopf all die verschiedenen Gesetze hätte, wenn er die Welt in der Weise zusammenwürfeln würde, wie Goethe den «Faust» zusammengewürfelt hätte, wenn er sich vor den Setzerkasten gestellt hätte! Aber der liebe Gott machte das ja ebensowenig, wie Goethe seinen «Faust» eben nicht zusammengewürfelt hat. Es hat das, was wir uns in der Seele des Gottes zu denken haben, gar nichts zu tun mit dem ganzen Gedankengang vom Zusammenwürfeln, ebensowenig wie die Entstehung von Goethes «Faust» etwas zu tun hat mit dieser ganzen ungeheuer gelehrt gedachten Art des Zusammenwürfelns. Das heißt: Dieser ganze Gedankengang führt auf eine absolute Unmöglichkeit! Er ist geistvoll, er ist richtig, er ist gewissenhaft, alles das ist er, aber er führt auf eine Unmöglichkeit! Das beruht darauf, daß hier ein gewissenhafter Mensch einen Gedankengang aufnimmt, ihn weiterspinnt, aber während des Gedankenganges verliert er die realen Faktoren, die ihn zu einem wirklichen, richtigen Ende kommen ließen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":423,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/163/1915-08-23/p017"}],"english":["GA 163/1915-08-23/p024","GA 163/1915-08-23/p025"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":423,"en_words":434,"ratio":1.03,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.97,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5067,"original_word_count":5225,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Marjorie Spock","identified_edition":"AP1988","book_title":"Chance, Providence and Necessity","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA163/English/AP1988/19150823p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 163/1915-08-23/p017"],"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."}}