{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 179/1917-12-17/p003","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"In the lectures given during this week there lies much which can lead us to understand the nature of man in its connection with the historical evolution of humanity in such a way as to enable us to gradually form a conception of *necessity* and *free will*. Such questions can be less easily decided by means of definitions and combinations of words than by bringing together the relevant truths from the spiritual world. In our age humanity must accustom itself more and more to acquire a different form of understanding for reality from the one so prevalent today, which, after all, holds to very secondary and nebulous concepts bound up with the definitions of words. If we consider what certain persons who think themselves especially clever write and say, we have the feeling that they speak in concepts and ideas which are only apparently clear; in reality however, they are as lacking in clarity as if someone were to speak of a certain object which is made, for example, out of a gourd, so that the gourd is transformed into a flask and used as such. We can then speak about this object as if we were speaking of a gourd, for it is a gourd in reality; but we can also speak of it as if it were a flask, for it is used as a flask. Indeed, the things of which we speak are first determined by the connections we are dealing with; as soon as we no longer rely upon words when we are speaking, but upon a certain *perception*, then everyone will know whether we mean a flask or a gourd. But then we may not confine ourselves to a description or a definition of the object. For as long as we confine ourselves to a description or definition of this object it can just as well be a gourd as a flask. In a similar way, that which is spoken of today by many philologists—persons who consider themselves very clever—may be the human soul, but it may also be the human body—it may be gourd or it may be flask. I include in this remark a great deal of what is taken seriously at the present time (partly to the detriment of humanity). For this reason it is necessary that a striving should proceed from anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, for which clear, precise thinking is above all a necessity, a striving to perceive the world not in the way in which it is customary today (not by confusing the gourd and the flask) but to see everywhere what is real, be it outer physical reality, or spiritual reality.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"7. The Inadequacy of Natural Science for the Knowledge of the Life of the Soul. The Experiences of Man's Spirit-Soul with the Hierarchies","site_heading":null,"date":"1917-12-17","location":null,"word_count":443,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/179/1917-12-17/p003","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"ANS1934","book_title":"Historical Necessity and Freewill","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA179/English/ANS1934/19171217p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. 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/179/1917-12-17/p003"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/179/1917-12-17/p003","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":"1917-12-17","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 179/1917-12-17/p003","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/179/1917-12-17/p003"},{"locus":"GA 179/1917-12-17/p004","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/179/1917-12-17/p004"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 179/1917-12-17/p003","GA 179/1917-12-17/p004"],"length_check":{"de_words":433,"en_words":467,"ratio":1.08,"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 179/1917-12-17/p003","passage_number":3,"text":"Den Betrachtungen, die in diesen Wochen gehalten worden sind, lag verschiedenes zugrunde, das dazu führen kann, die menschliche Natur in ihrem Zusammenhang mit dem geschichtlichen Werden der Menschheit so zu verstehen, daß man sich allmählich eine Vorstellung bilden kann über Notwendigkeit und Freiheit. Weniger können solche Dinge entschieden werden durch Definitionen und Wortauseinandersetzungen als dadurch, daß man die entsprechenden Wahrheiten aus der geistigen Welt zusammenträgt. Die Menschheit wird sich in unserem Zeitalter immer mehr daran gewöhnen müssen, eine andere Art des Verständnisses der Wirklichkeit sich anzueignen, als es die heute so vielfach herrschende und übliche ist, die sich im Grunde genommen an sehr Sekundäres, an allerlei nebulose Vorstellungen in Anknüpfung an Wortdefinitionen und so weiter hält. Man hat heute, wenn man das vornimmt, was manche Leute schreiben oder sagen, die sich für ganz besonders gescheit halten, das Gefühl: sie reden in Begriffen und Vorstellungen, die nur scheinbar bestimmt, in Wirklichkeit aber so unbestimmt sind, wie wenn jemand über einen gewissen Gegenstand sprechen würde, der zum Beispiel aus einem Kürbis gemacht ist. Hat man einen Kürbis umgestaltet zu einer Flasche und benützt ihn als Flasche, so kann man über diesen Gegenstand so reden, als ob man über einen Kürbis redet, denn ein Kürbis ist es in Wirklichkeit; aber man kann auch wie über eine Flasche reden, denn eine Flasche ist er ja auch, er wird richtig benützt als Flasche. Nicht wahr, die Dinge, über die man spricht, bekommen erst ihre Valeurs in den Zusammenhängen, in denen man sich ergeht. Wenn man nicht in Anlehnung an Worte, sondern aus einer gewissen Anschauung heraus spricht, so wird jeder Mensch wissen, ob man eine Flasche meint oder einen Kürbis. Aber man darf sich dann nicht auf die Beschreibung des Gegenstandes oder die Definition des Gegenstandes beschränken. Denn solange man sich auf eine Beschreibung, auf eine Definition beschränkt, kann es ebensogut ein Kürbis oder eine Flasche sein. Und so kann heute dasjenige, worüber viele Philologen, Leute, die sich sehr gescheit dünken, reden, die Seele des Menschen sein, es kann aber auch der Leib des Menschen sein, es kann Kürbis und kann Flasche sein.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":348,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/179/1917-12-17/p003"},{"locus":"GA 179/1917-12-17/p004","passage_number":4,"text":"Ich meine mit dieser Bemerkung sehr vieles von dem, was in der Gegenwart sehr ernst genommen wird, zum Teil zum Unheil der Menschheit. Daher eben ist es notwendig, daß gerade von der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft, zu der unter anderem auch klares, präzises Denken nötig ist, ausgehe ein Bestreben, nicht in einer solchen Weise, wie es heute üblich ist, die Welt anzuschauen, nicht den Kürbis mit der Flasche zu verwechseln, sondern überall auf das Reale zu sehen, sei es das äußere Physisch-Reale, sei es das Geistig-Reale.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":85,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/179/1917-12-17/p004"}],"english":["GA 179/1917-12-17/p002","GA 179/1917-12-17/p003"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":433,"en_words":467,"ratio":1.08,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 179/1917-12-17/p003","GA 179/1917-12-17/p004"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7509,"original_word_count":7160,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"ANS1934","book_title":"Historical Necessity and Freewill","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA179/English/ANS1934/19171217p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. 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 179/1917-12-17/p003","GA 179/1917-12-17/p004"],"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."}}