{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 197/1920-07-30/p011","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Going just by the content, even a fool would find it relatively easy to refute Oswald Spengler's ideas. That is by no means difficult, but it is not what matters. What matters is to establish the concrete reality of Spengler's work and show how it can be overcome in a real and concrete way. In future the essential point in characterizing a person Will be more and more to consider what they are actually saying rather than to respond in sympathy or antipathy to what he or she has to say. We should not consider whether certain contents please or displeases us, but whether there is a spiritual quality to them. It is more important for the overall outcome of world evolution that there is someone who is an inspired materialist, a genius in representing materialism, for that calls for a brilliant mind whilst it often needs very little intelligence to represent platitudinous mysticism. A platitudinous mystic may on occasion do more to make the world materialistic than an inspired materialist. It is the quality of mind that matters. Recognition of this fact will count for much more in future than the actual content. This is something we have to learn. We must not seek for the spirit as though it were a system of logic; we must look for its reality. Let me ask you this. Would it not be possible for You to see that more of the spirit is alive in an inspired materialist than in a spiritualist full of platitudes? These are the things spiritual science working towards anthroposophy must come to see clearly. It is the reality of the spirit that matters, not the abstract statements made by one person or another. People fail to realize how important it is to consider realities and not theories!","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 Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote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":301,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/197/1920-07-30/p011","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/p011"},{"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/p011","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/p011","passage_number":11,"text":"Es ist heute, wenn man den bloßen Inhalt nimmt, für jeden törichten Menschen verhältnismäßig leicht, Oswald Spengler zu widerlegen. Das ist nicht schwer, aber darauf kommt es nicht an, sondern darauf, zu sagen, was in Oswald Spengler konkret, real lebt und wodurch er konkret, real überwunden werden kann. Und es wird in der Zukunft immer mehr und mehr darauf ankommen, daß wir, wenn wir eine Persönlichkeit charakterisieren wollen, mehr darauf schauen, was sie vorbringt, als darauf, ob sie gerade das vorbringt, was einem inhaltlich gefällt oder mißfällt. Man muß nicht darauf sehen, ob einem inhaltlich etwas gefällt oder mißfällt, sondern ob es geistige Qualitäten hat. Es ist viel wichtiger für den Gesamteffekt der Weltevolution, daß ein genialer Materialist da ist, der den Materialismus genial vertritt — dazu gehört Geist, und manchmal gehört sehr wenig Geist dazu, um platte Mystik zu vertreten. Der platte Mystiker kann unter Umständen viel mehr zur Vermaterialisierung der Welt beitragen als der geniale Materialist. Auf die Qualitäten des Geistigen kommt es an. Darauf, daß dies erkannt wird, wird es viel mehr ankommen in der Zukunft als auf den Inhalt. Das ist das, was gelernt werden muß; denn wir wollen nicht den Geist anstreben als ein logisches System, sondern in seiner Realität, und da frage ich Sie: Können Sie sich nicht vorstellen, daß Geist lebt in dem geistvollen Materialisten, mehr als in dem platten Spiritualisten? Diese Dinge, die müssen von der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft eingesehen und durchschaut werden; denn auf die Realität des Geistes kommt es an, nicht auf die abstrakte Behauptung des einen oder des andern. Das verkennt man gerade, wie sehr es wirklich ankommt auf Realitäten und nicht auf Theorien!","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":275,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/197/1920-07-30/p011"}],"english":["GA 197/1920-07-30/p011"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":275,"en_words":301,"ratio":1.09,"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/p011"],"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."}}