{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 186/1918-12-13/p015","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Thus at the very dawn of conscious thinking on economic matters you see these opposite and conflicting thoughts arise in manifold directions. We may now go on and observe the entry of a most influential theory of political economy, one that had an extraordinarily powerful influence on legislation, and a powerful influence too on the thoughts of economists themselves. I mean the theory of Adam Smith, who placed before himself this question above all: “How should we bring about a social structure such as to develop, in the best possible way, the welfare of the individual and at the same time the welfare of the community?” I will here emphasize one characteristic point. Adam Smith arrived at the idea that an entirely individualistic development of economic life is the best thing possible. He took his start from the idea that goods, the commodities we buy and sell—constituting after all the very substance of the national economy—are in effect the result of human labor. We may put it this way. Whenever we buy a thing, the thing we buy has come into existence through the performance of human labor. The piece of goods, the commodity is, as it were, crystallized human labor. And Adam Smith thought: Just because this was the foundation of economic life, prosperity will best be brought about if we do not hinder people through any kind of legislation from producing freely. The individual will do the best for the community if he does the best for himself. Roughly speaking, this is Adam Smith's idea: We shall do the very best for all mankind if we do the very best for ourselves, for then we shall best be able to deliver the goods. It will be best both for the individual and mankind to arrange the economic life in an individualistic way and not to erect hindrances by legislation or the like.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. The Transforming of Instinctive into Conscious Impulses","site_heading":null,"date":"1918-12-13","location":null,"word_count":314,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/186/1918-12-13/p015","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"C52","book_title":"The Fundamental Social Demand of Our Times","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA186/English/C52/19181213p01.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/186/1918-12-13/p015"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/186/1918-12-13/p015","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":"1918-12-13","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 186/1918-12-13/p013","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/186/1918-12-13/p013"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":287,"en_words":314,"ratio":1.09,"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 186/1918-12-13/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Wir können dann weiter verfolgen, wie eine einflußreiche Anschauung auf volkswirtschaftlichem Gebiete Platz greift, die eigentlich ungeheuer intensiv die Gesetzgebungen beeinflußt hat, aber auch die Gedanken, die sich die Volkswirtschafter über diese Dinge gemacht haben. Das ist die Anschauung des Adam Smith, der namentlich die Frage sich vor die Seele rückte: Wie führt man eine soziale Struktur herbei, welche geeignet ist, den Wohlstand des einzelnen und den Wohlstand des Ganzen in der bestmöglichen Weise zu gestalten? — Adam Smith kam eigentlich — wir wollen auf einen charakteristischen Punkt dabei hinweisen - zu der Anschauung, daß die völlig individuelle Ausgestaltung der Volkswirtschaft das Allerbeste sei. Er ging ja davon aus, daß Güter, Waren, die ja schließlich den Inhalt der Volkswirtschaft ausmachen, die man zu kaufen und zu verkaufen hat, eigentlich das Ergebnis menschlicher Arbeit seien. Man könnte sagen, seine Anschauung war diese: Wenn man irgend etwas kauft, so ist das dadurch zustandegekommen, daß menschliche Arbeit verrichtet worden ist. Also ist gewissermaßen das Gut, die Ware, kristallisierte menschliche Arbeit. Und er meinte, daß der Wohlstand gerade wegen dieser Grundlage der Volkswirtschaft dadurch am besten herbeigeführt wird, daß man die Leute durch irgendwelche Gesetzgebungen nicht hindere, frei zu produzieren. Der einzelne wird gerade für die Gesamtheit dann das Beste leisten, wenn er für sich selber das Beste leistet. Adam Smith ist ungefähr der Anschauung, daß man auch für die gesamte Menschheit das Beste leiste, wenn man für sich das Beste leistet. Man kann dann am besten die Sachen abgeben und leistet für die Menschheit das Beste, wenn man für sich das Beste leistet. Es ist für den einzelnen und für die Menschheit am besten, wenn man individualistisch die Volkswirtschaft einrichtet, wenn man nicht durch Gesetzgebung besondere Hemmungen und dergleichen aufrichtet.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":287,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/186/1918-12-13/p013"}],"english":["GA 186/1918-12-13/p015"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":287,"en_words":314,"ratio":1.09,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.1,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8687,"original_word_count":7876,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"C52","book_title":"The Fundamental Social Demand of Our Times","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA186/English/C52/19181213p01.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 186/1918-12-13/p013"],"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. 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