{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 197/1920-07-30/p007","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"All this shows that it is necessary to consider the things spiritual science working towards anthroposophy presents to human minds in a totally different way from the way we usually look at things. It is necessary to abandon mere theory and consider the reality: to progress at all levels from abstract intellectual knowledge to active perceptiveness, to doing things, really doing something in relation to the world. As I have said before—but it is essential to make this point with real forcefulness—people think that some are materialists nowadays and others are spiritualists. A spiritualist will say: ‘He's a materialist and has to be opposed because it is not true that the soul is the product of physical matter. What the materialist says is wrong and we have done enough when we have refuted his arguments. The materialist is in error and therefore must be opposed.’ That is not the point, however. It is not a question of logic, of theories. Yet people always think spiritual science is all theory. Spiritual science working towards anthroposophy always bases itself on reality, sometimes of course seeking it in the place where it is to be truly found: in the true realm of the spirit. People who look to the outside world and seek to find matter everywhere by the methods now used in molecular and atomic theory—it makes no difference if they see matter as point sources of energy or as tiny building stones—are not merely subject to an error in logic that can be refuted. True spiritual science has nothing to do with purely theoretical concepts. It is concerned with reality. Anyone looking for more than phenomena in the outside world Is on the road not only to logical error but to organic illness affecting the whole of his person. We should not say that to follow this road Is an error in logic. We should say that anyone searching for truth In that direction is on the road to organic illness, on the road to feeblemindedness. Spiritual science working towards anthroposophy often has to change theoretical views into views that relate to reality. The search for clarity of ideas and concepts has nothing to do with merely agreeing or disagreeing with the views of others; it has to do with sickness and health, very real things in our lives. It therefore has to be said that a seeker who looks to phenomena for more than mere phenomena, for physical matter, is on the road to feeblemindedness, to organic illness. This is entirely within the sphere of reality.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture VII","site_heading":"Spirit and Matter: Reversing Materialist Consciousness","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1920-07-30","location":null,"word_count":426,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/197/1920-07-30/p007","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1987","book_title":"Polarities in the Evolution of Mankind","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA197/English/RSP1987/19200730p01.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/197/1920-07-30/p007"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/197/1920-07-30/p007","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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 197/1920-07-30/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Das alles aber nötigt uns, dasjenige, was anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft an die Menschen heranbringt, in ganz anderer Weise zu betrachten, als die Dinge sonst gewöhnlich betrachtet werden. Es nötigt uns, von bloßen Theorien zu Realitäten überzugehen, überall überzugehen von dem abstrakten Verstandeswissen zur Taterkenntnis, zu demjenigen, was ein Tun ist, ein wirkliches Tun ist im Weltenzusammenhang. Denn ich habe es schon gesagt — aber es ist notwendig, daß dies mit besonderer Schärfe hervorgehoben werde -, die Leute glauben heute, der eine ist Materialist, der andere ist Spiritualist. Derjenige, der Spiritualist ist, sagt: Der ist Materialist, man muß ihn widerlegen; denn es ist nicht wahr, daß die Seele ein Produkt der Materie ist. Daher ist es falsch, was der Materialist behauptet, und es ist genügend erreicht, wenn man ihn widerlegt hat. Der Materialist ist in einem logischen Irrtum, und man muß ihn widerlegen. - Nein, darum handelt es sich nicht. Das ist keine Sache der Logik, das ist keine Sache des Theoretisierens, und man meint nur, daß Geisteswissenschaft Theoretisieren sei. Anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft steht überall auf dem Boden der Realitäten, wenn sie diese auch manchmal da sucht, wo sie wirklich zu suchen sind: in demjenigen, wo der Geist waltet und west. Wer die äußere Welt ansieht und überall die Materie sucht nach der Methode der neueren Molekular- und atomistischen Theoretiker, gleichgültig ob er sie ansieht als Kraftpunkte oder als kleine Klötzchen, der ist nicht bloß in einem logischen Irrtum, den man zu widerlegen hat. Mit solchen Dingen, die bloß theoretische Begriffe sind, hat es die wahre Geisteswissenschaft nicht zu tun. Sie hat es zu tun mit Realitäten. Wer in der äußeren Welt etwas anderes sucht als Phänomene, ist auf dem Wege nicht bloß zu einem logischen Irrtum, sondern zur organischen Erkrankung seines ganzen Wesens. Und man muß nicht sagen, die Verfolgung dieses Weges ist ein logischer Irrtum, sondern man muß sagen, derjenige, der so sucht, ist auf dem Wege zur organischen Erkrankung, auf dem Wege zum Schwachsinn. Das ist es, daß wir vielfach auf dem Gebiete der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft umwandeln müssen die Dinge, die theoretisch gemeint sind, in solche, die real gemeint sind. Das Erklären auf geistigem Gebiete hat es nicht zu tun mit dem bloßen Zustimmen oder Widerlegen, sondern hat es zu tun mit dem, was Gesundheit und Krankheit, was Realitäten im Leben sind. Und so müssen wir sagen: Wer so sucht, daß er in den Phänomenen nicht bloß die Phänomene, sondern die Materie sucht, der ist auf dem Wege zum Schwachsinn, zur organischen Erkrankung. Das ist etwas, was innerhalb der Wirklichkeit verläuft.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":424,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/197/1920-07-30/p007"}],"english":["GA 197/1920-07-30/p007"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":424,"en_words":426,"ratio":1.0,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6265,"original_word_count":6008,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1987","book_title":"Polarities in the Evolution of Mankind","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA197/English/RSP1987/19200730p01.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 197/1920-07-30/p007"],"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."}}