{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 170/1916-08-07/p017","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Now it is exactly the same with the knowledge we acquire about the things of the outer world, of outer Nature. The knowledge we thus acquire passes over into a different sphere of working. I beg you to take this truth in the deepest earnestness. In our efforts to understand the outer world it is possible for us to deprive ourselves of many of the forces that are necessary to the process of the transformation of our present body into the head of the next incarnation. As we acquire knowledge of the outer world, we deprive our being of a very great deal, and an adjustment must be brought about by providing that this knowledge passes over into another sphere. Just as the grains of wheat receive in a sense a nobler function when they are used as foodstuff for human beings, just as they receive compensation in this way for having been diverted from their original evolution, so too, knowledge of the outer world must be given over to a nobler purpose as compensation for having been deprived of its primary function. All the truth that a human being makes his own, all the knowledge he acquired of the outer world must be given into the hands of the Gods. We ought always to be inwardly conscious that the knowledge thus diverted from the onward stream of evolution must be placed in the service of the Gods, must, as it were, become an act of divine worship. All the knowledge we acquire without making it a holy offering to the evolutionary process of humanity, without consciously offering it to those Higher Spirits who receive their nourishment from it—all the knowledge we receive without thought of giving it over to this higher purpose, is like the grains of wheat which fall into the soil and decay—fulfilling neither their original purpose nor the other purpose of serving as nourishment for human beings.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Human Knowledge and Its Significance for Man and the Cosmos","site_heading":null,"date":"1916-08-07","location":null,"word_count":321,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/170/1916-08-07/p017","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"Singles","book_title":"The Riddle of Humanity","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA170/English/Singles/19160807p02.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/170/1916-08-07/p017"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/170/1916-08-07/p017","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},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 170/1916-08-07_02","ga":"170","lecture":"1916-08-07_02","kind":"renderings","relation":"another translation or transcription of the same lecture"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1916-08-07","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 170/1916-08-07/p013","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/170/1916-08-07/p013"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":288,"en_words":321,"ratio":1.11,"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 170/1916-08-07/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Und so ist es auch, wenn wir Erkenntnisse der äußeren Natur, der äußeren Dinge erwerben. Die Dinge gehen da in eine andere Sphäre über. Und ich bitte Sie, diese Wahrheit recht, recht tief zu nehmen. Wir Menschen können uns eine ganz große Summe dessen entziehen, was wahrheitsgemäß in uns ist, was wir verwenden müssen, um übergehen zu lassen unseren Leib der gegenwärtigen Inkarnation in den Kopf der nächsten Inkarnation. Wir können uns viel entziehen, um gegenwärtige Kenntnisse zu erwerben, aber wir müssen beachten, daß diese Kenntnisse zu etwas anderem da sein müssen. Wie die Weizenkörner gewissermaßen geadelt werden dadurch, daß sie zur menschlichen Nahrung verwendet werden - es wird ihnen da etwas Angemessenes gegeben dafür, daß sie ihrer ursprünglichen Wesenheit entzogen werden -, so muß es auch mit der menschlichen äußeren Erkenntnis sein, die ganz wider die Natur des Vorstellungsmäßigen, des Wahrheitsmäßigen entwickelt wird. Alles das, was der Mensch als Wahrheit erwirbt, die in Bildern der Außenwelt besteht, das soll er in seiner Gemütsempfindung den Göttern übergeben. Er soll das Bewußtsein immer in sich tragen: Erwirbst du Erkenntnisse, die du dem fortlaufenden Strom entziehst, so sei dir klar, daß Erkenntnis-Erwerben ein Götterdienst sein muß. Was an Erkenntnis erworben wird, ohne daß wir uns bewußt sind, daß das ein heiliger Dienst in der Entwickelung der Menschheit ist, ohne daß wir das, was wir uns aneignen von der Außenwelt, den höheren Geistern übergeben, die sich davon nähren, die das in sich aufnehmen - was wir an solcher Erkenntnis erwerben, die wir nicht mit dieser Empfindung begleiten, die wir einfach gedankenlos erwerben, das ist wie Weizenkörner, die in die Erde fallen und verfaulen, das heißt, die keine Ziele erreichen, nicht die ihren und nicht die anderen, die zur menschlichen Nahrung dienen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":288,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/170/1916-08-07/p013"}],"english":["GA 170/1916-08-07/p017"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":288,"en_words":321,"ratio":1.11,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.11,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":4214,"original_word_count":3801,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"Singles","book_title":"The Riddle of Humanity","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA170/English/Singles/19160807p02.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 170/1916-08-07/p013"],"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."}}