{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 322/1920-09-27/p006","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"In the last third of the nineteenth century, scientists already believed themselves very close to being able to give a mathematical-mechanical explanation of natural phenomena that would be thoroughly transparent. It remained for them only to explain the little matter of the atom. They wanted to reduce it to a point-force [ *Kraftpunkt*] in order to be able to express its position and momenta in mathematical formulae. They believed they would then be justified in saying: I contemplate nature, and what I contemplate there is in reality a network of interrelated forces and movements wholly intelligible in terms of mathematics. Hence there arose the ideal of the so-called “astronomical explanation of nature,” which states in essence: just as one brings to expression the relationships between the various heavenly bodies in mathematical formulae, so too should one be able to compute everything within this smallest realm, within the “little cosmos” of atoms and molecules, in terms of lucid mathematics. This was a striving that climaxed in the last third of the nineteenth century: it is now on the decline again. Over against this striving for a crystal-clear, mathematical view of the world, however, there stands something entirely different, something that is called forth the moment one tries to extend this striving into realms other than that of inanimate nature. You know that in the course of the nineteenth century the attempt was made to carry this point of view, at least to some extent, into the life sciences. And though Kant had said that a second Newton would never be found who could explain living organisms according to a causal principle similar to that used to explain inorganic nature, Haeckel could nevertheless claim that this second Newton had been found in Darwin, that Darwin had actually tried, by means of the principle of natural selection, to explain how organisms evolve in the same “transparent” terms. And one began to aim for just such a clarity, a clarity at least approaching that of mathematics, in all explanations, proceeding all the way up to the explanation of man himself. Something thereby was fulfilled which certain scientists explained by saying that man's need to understand the causes of phenomena is satisfied only when he arrives at such a transparent, lucid view of the world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture I","site_heading":"Consciousness, Matter, and the Crisis of Modern Thought","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":"1920-09-27","location":null,"word_count":380,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/322/1920-09-27/p006","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Frederick Amrine and Konrad Oberhuber","identified_edition":"AP1983","book_title":"The Boundaries of Natural Science","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA322/English/AP1983/19200927p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"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/322/1920-09-27/p006"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/322/1920-09-27/p006","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 322/1920-09-27/p006","passage_number":6,"text":"Es war im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, da glaubte man schon ganz nahe daran zu sein, eine mathematisch-mechanische Naturerklärung geben zu können, die gewissermaßen überallhin durchsichtig ist. Es blieb einem, ich möchte sagen, nur das kleine Pünktchen des Atoms. Man hat es wollen bis zum Kraftpunkt verdünnen, um seine Lage, seine Bewegungskräfte in mathematische Formeln zu bringen. Man glaubte dadurch sich sagen zu können: Ich blicke in die Natur; in Wirklichkeit blicke ich da in ein Gewebe von Kraftverhältnissen und Bewegungen, die ich durchaus mathematisch durchschauen kann. — Und es ist ja das Ideal der sogenannten astronomischen Naturerklärung entstanden, das im wesentlichen besagt: So wie man etwa in mathematischen Formeln die Verhältnisse unter den Himmelskörpern zum Ausdrucke bringt, so soll man im ganz Kleinen, gewissermaßen in diesem kleinen Kosmos der Atome und Moleküle, alles in durchsichtiger Mathematik berechnen können. Das war das Streben, das einen gewissen Höhepunkt erlangte - jetzt ist schon wieder dieser Höhepunkt überschritten — im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts. Allein, diesem Streben nach dem mathematisch-durchsichtigen Weltenbilde steht etwas ganz anderes gegenüber, und das tritt sogleich hervor, wenn man die Ausdehnung dieses Strebens auf andere Gebiete als auf die der leblosen Natur herausbekommen will. Sie wissen, man hat ja auch versucht im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts, diese Anschauungsweise, dieses Streben nach durchsichtiger mathematischer Klarheit wenigstens teilweise hereinzubringen in die Erklärung des Lebendigen. Und während noch Kant gesagt hat, es werde sich niemals ein Newton finden, um in derselben Weise wie in die unorganische Natur auch in die Natur der Lebewesen Erklärung nach dem Ursachenprinzip hineinzubringen, konnte schon Haeckel sagen, daß dieser Newton in Darwin erstanden sei, daß da wirklich versucht worden ist, durch das Prinzip der Selektion gewissermaßen in durchsichtiger Weise zu zeigen, wie die Lebewesen sich entwickeln. Und nach einer ebensolchen Durchsichtigkeit, wenigstens an das mathematische Weltbild erinnernden Durchsichtigkeit, strebte man in allen Erklärungen, die heraufgingen bis zum Menschen. Und es war damit etwas erfüllt, was von einzelnen Naturforschern so ausgesprochen wurde, daß sie sagten: Das menschliche Kausalitätsbedürfnis gegenüber den Erscheinungen ist zunächst erfüllt, wenn man zu einer solchen durchsichtigen, klaren Anschauung kommt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":348,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/322/1920-09-27/p006"}],"english":["GA 322/1920-09-27/p006"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":348,"en_words":380,"ratio":1.09,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":4353,"original_word_count":4129,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Frederick Amrine and Konrad Oberhuber","identified_edition":"AP1983","book_title":"The Boundaries of Natural Science","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA322/English/AP1983/19200927p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 322/1920-09-27/p006"],"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. 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