{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 177/1917-10-13/p018","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Schaeffle, therefore, did something rather like Kjellen is doing now. Kjellen, too, is trying to present every State as an organism, with the individual citizens as its cells. We do, of course, know quite a few things about the way in which cells function in an organism, and about the laws which pertain in an organism, and this transfers quite prettily to a State. People like to use such comparisons in areas which their minds are unable to penetrate. Well, the method of comparison can be applied to anything. If you like, I can easily develop a complete little science based on the comparison between a swarm of locusts and a double bass. You can compare anything to anything in the world, and comparisons will always prove fruitful. But the fact that we are able to make comparisons certainly does not mean that we are dealing with reality in making them. It is especially important to have a tremendous sense of reality when creating analogies, otherwise they will not work. When we create an analogy we are apt to find ourselves in the situation which some people experience as a harsh destiny in the days of their youth, when—forgive me—we instantly fall in love with the analogy we have created. Analogies which come to mind and really are obvious do have the drawback that we fall in love with them. This has its consequence, however, for we grow blind to any argument against the conclusions which may be drawn from the analogy.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"8. Abstraction and Reality","site_heading":null,"date":"1917-10-13","location":null,"word_count":252,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/177/1917-10-13/p018","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Anna R. Meuss","identified_edition":"RSP1993","book_title":"The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA177/English/RSP1993/19171013p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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/177/1917-10-13/p018"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/177/1917-10-13/p018","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":"1917-10-13","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 177/1917-10-13/p016","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/177/1917-10-13/p016"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":275,"en_words":252,"ratio":0.92,"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 177/1917-10-13/p016","passage_number":16,"text":"Also Schäffle hat schon dazumal etwas ähnliches gemacht wie Kjellén jetzt. Kjellén sucht es auch wiederum so darzustellen, als ob jeder Staat ein Organismus wäre, die einzelnen Menschen darinnen die Zellen. Man weiß ja allerlei über die Wirksamkeit der Zellen im Organismus, über die Gesetze, die im Organismus walten, und kann das so hübsch übertragen auf den Staat. Mit solchen Vergleichen wirtschaftet man ja gern in den Gebieten, die man nicht geistig beherrschen kann. Nun, methodisch kann man alles mit allem vergleichen. Ich kann Ihnen ganz gut, wenn Sie wollen, eine kleine Wissenschaft aufbauen auf einem Vergleich zwischen einem Heuschrekkenschwarm und einer Baßgeige. Man kann alles mit allem vergleichen in der Welt, und bei allen Vergleichen kann etwas herauskommen. Aber daß man einen Vergleich anstellen kann, das ist noch durchaus nicht irgendwie maßgebend dafür, daß man mit solchen Vergleichen in der Wirklichkeit lebt. Gerade wenn man Vergleiche anstellt, muß man einen eindringlichen Sinn für die Wirklichkeit haben, sonst wird der Vergleich niemals stimmen. Denn stellt man einen Vergleich an, so ist man sehr bald in dem Fall, in dem zu ihrem herben Schicksal manche Menschen in ihrer Jugend sind - verzeihen Sie -: Man verliebt sich sogleich in seinen Vergleich, wie sich manche Menschen sogleich in einen anderen Menschen verlieben. Vergleiche, die einem einfallen oder die sogar auf der Straße liegen, wie der zwischen Staat und Organismus, die haben schon den Nachteil, daß man sich sogleich in die Sache verliebt. Aber dies Verlieben in einen solchen Vergleich, das hat eine Folge. Das hat die Folge, daß man blind wird gegen alles das, was gegen die Sache spricht, die man dann aus dem Vergleich heraus vorbringt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":275,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/177/1917-10-13/p016"}],"english":["GA 177/1917-10-13/p018"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":275,"en_words":252,"ratio":0.92,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6747,"original_word_count":6463,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Anna R. Meuss","identified_edition":"RSP1993","book_title":"The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA177/English/RSP1993/19171013p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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 177/1917-10-13/p016"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}}