{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 191/1919-10-10/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"And so, one might say that it was like impulses given from on high that REINCARNATION and KARMA came amongst us and into our civilisation. But how were these impulses interpreted? At bottom it was in a very egoistic way that these ideas of Reincarnation and Karma were understood, even by those who took them up. For instance, they would say: “Oh, well! In some life or other everyone has deserved what he gets.” Even otherwise quite intelligent people have been known to say that the ideas of Reincarnation and Karma of themselves sufficiently warranted the existence of human suffering. There was at bottom no justification for the social question,—so said many otherwise intelligent people,—for, if a man was poor, it was what he had earned in his previous incarnation, and he has to work off in this incarnation only what he deserved from a previous one. Even the ideas of reincarnation and karma are unable to permeate our civilisation in any way except one which gives no stimulus to the altruistic sense. It is not enough for us merely to introduce ideas such as those of reincarnation and Karma,—the question is, *in what way* we introduce them. If they become merely an incentive to egoism, then they do not raise up our civilised life, they only serve to sink it lower.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. Social Impulses for the Healing of Modern Civilization","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-10-10","location":null,"word_count":222,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/191/1919-10-10/p009","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"LA1963","book_title":"Cosmogony, Freedom, Altruism","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA191/English/LA1963/19191010p02.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/191/1919-10-10/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/191/1919-10-10/p009","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":"1919-10-10","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 191/1919-10-10/p008","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-10/p008"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":338,"en_words":354,"ratio":1.05,"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 191/1919-10-10/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Und so kommt es denn, daß, man möchte sagen, wie hereingeschneit wurden in unsere Zivilisation die Impulse der Reinkarnation und des Karma. Aber wie wurden die Impulse der Reinkarnation und des Karma aufgefaßt? Selbst von denjenigen, die sich zuwandten diesen Ideen von Reinkarnation und Karma, wurden diese Ideen im Grunde genommen in sehr egoistischem Sinne aufgefaßt. Es wurde zum Beispiel gesagt, der Mensch habe sein Schicksal verdient in einem bestimmten Leben. Man hat sogar hören können von sonst intelligenten Leuten, daß die Ideen von Reinkarnation und Karma an sich schon eine Beantwortung seien für die Frage nach dem Vorhandensein des menschlichen Leides; die soziale Frage habe im Grunde genommen keine Berechtigung. So haben manche, sonst intelligente Leute gesagt, der Arme habe sich das eben in seiner früheren Inkarnation verdient und er habe nur dasjenige in seiner jetzigen Inkarnation auszuleben, was er sich in seiner früheren Inkarnation verdient hat. Sogar die Ideen von Reinkarnation und Karma sind nicht imstande, in unsere Zivilisation hereinzuwirken so, daß sie einen Antrieb bilden zum altruistischen Empfinden. Es handelt sich ja nicht bloß darum, daß wir solche Ideen wie Reinkarnation und Karma in unsere Zeit hereinbringen, sondern es handelt sich darum, wie wir sie hereinbringen. Wenn sie nur ein Antrieb zum Egoismus werden, dann heben sie unsere Kultur nicht, dann drängen sie unsere Kultur erst recht hinunter. Auf der anderen Seite werden ja Reinkarnation und Karma zu unethischen Ideen, zu antiethischen Ideen, wenn viele Menschen sagen: Ich muß ein guter Mensch werden, damit meine nächste Inkarnation eine gute ist. - Aus diesem Antrieb, ein guter Mensch zu werden, damit man in der nächsten Inkarnation möglichst Sympathisches erlebt, aus diesem Antrieb handeln ist Doppelegoismus, ist nicht bloß einfacher Egoismus. Aber dieser Doppelegoismus, der kam für viele Menschen aus den Ideen von Reinkarnation und Karma. So daß man sagen kann: Unsere Zivilisation hat so wenig altruistischreligiösen Impuls, daß es ihr unmöglich ist, selbst solche Ideen wie Reinkarnation und Karma in dem Sinne aufzufassen, daß sie Antriebe werden zu altruistischem und nicht zu egoistischem Handeln und Empfinden.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":338,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-10/p008"}],"english":["GA 191/1919-10-10/p009","GA 191/1919-10-10/p010"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":338,"en_words":354,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.17,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7938,"original_word_count":6808,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"LA1963","book_title":"Cosmogony, Freedom, Altruism","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA191/English/LA1963/19191010p02.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 191/1919-10-10/p008"],"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."}}