{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 320/1919-12-23/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"The second thing, done by the man of today in scientific research, is that he tries by experiment, or by conceptual elaboration of the results of experiment, to arrive at what he calls the “causes” of phenomena. Speaking of causes, our scientists will have in mind forces or substances or even more universal entities. They speak for instance of the force of electricity, the force of magnetism, the force of heat or warmth, and so on. They speak of an unknown “ether” or the like, as underlying the phenomena of light and electricity. From the results of experiment they try to arrive at the properties of this ether. Now you are well aware how very controversial is all that can be said about the “ether” of Physics. There is one thing however to which we may draw attention even at this stage. In trying, as they put it, to go back to the causes of phenomena, the scientists are always wanting to find their way from what is known into some unknown realm. They scarcely ever ask if it is really justified thus to proceed from the known to the unknown. They scarcely trouble, for example, to consider if it is justified to say that when we perceive a phenomenon of light or colour, what we subjectively describe as the quality of colour is the effect on us, upon our soul, our nervous apparatus, of an objective process that is taking place in the universal ether—say a wave-movement in the ether. They do not pause to think, whether it is justified thus to distinguish (what is what they really do) between the “subjective” event and the “objective”, the latter being the supposed wave-movement in the ether, or else the interaction thereof with processes in ponderable matter.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture I","site_heading":"Centric and Cosmic Forces: Rethinking Nature's Foundations","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 Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote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":"1919-12-23","location":null,"word_count":296,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/320/1919-12-23/p009","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"George Adams","identified_edition":"GSF1977","book_title":"The Light Course","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA320/English/GSF1977/19191223p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row"},"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/320/1919-12-23/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/320/1919-12-23/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":"1919-12-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 320/1919-12-23/p009","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/320/1919-12-23/p009"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":283,"en_words":296,"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 320/1919-12-23/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Das Zweite, was heute getan wird, wenn man sich auf dem Felde der Naturforschung betätigt, ist, dass man versucht, entweder durch das vorbereitende Experiment oder durch dasjenige, was sich daran anschließt durch die begriffliche Verarbeitung der Ergebnisse desselben, dass man versucht, zu dem zu kommen, was man die Ursachen der Erscheinungen nennt. Wenn man von denselben spricht, so hat man ja oftmals im Sinne Kräfte, Stoffe - man spricht von der Kraft der Elektrizität, der Kraft des Magnetismus, der Kraft der Wärme und so weiter - man hat auch im Sinne Umfassenderes oftmals. Man spricht davon, dass hinter den Lichterscheinungen oder auch hinter den Elektrizitätserscheinungen so etwas ist wie der unbekannte Äther. Man versucht, aus den Ergebnissen der Experimente auf die Eigenschaften dieses Äthers zu kommen. Sie wissen, alles dasjenige, was über diesen Äther ausgesagt wird, ist außerordentlich strittig. Aber auf eines darf wohl dabei gleich aufmerksam gemacht werden: Man versucht, indem man so, wie man sagt, zu den Ursachen der Erscheinungen aufsteigen will, vom Bekannten in eine Art Unbekanntes hinein den Weg, und man fragt nicht viel darüber nach, welche Berechtigung eigentlich vorliegt, von dem Bekannten in das Unbekannte hineinzukommen. Man gibt sich nur wenig zum Beispiel Rechenschaft darüber, welches Recht eigentlich vorliegt, davon zu sprechen, dass, wenn wir irgendeine Licht- oder Farbenerscheinung wahrnehmen, so ist das, was wir subjektiv als Farbenqualität bezeichnen, die Wirkung auf uns, auf unser Seelisches, auf unseren Nervenapparat, [ist] die Wirkung eines objektiven Vorgangs, der sich im Weltenäther als Wellenbewegung abspielt. Sodass wir eigentlich unterscheiden müssten den subjektiven und den objektiven Vorgang, der in einer Wellenbewegung des Äthers oder in [einer] Wechselwirkung desselben und den Vorgängen in der ponderablen Materie besteht, dass wir eigentlich dieses Zweifache hätten.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":283,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/320/1919-12-23/p009"}],"english":["GA 320/1919-12-23/p009"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":283,"en_words":296,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6177,"original_word_count":6111,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"George Adams","identified_edition":"GSF1977","book_title":"The Light Course","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA320/English/GSF1977/19191223p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 320/1919-12-23/p009"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. 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