{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 322/1920-09-27/p011","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"There were two concepts in particular that du Bois-Reymond had in mind, which to him established the limits natural science could reach but beyond which it could not proceed. Later he increased that number by five in his lecture, “The Seven Enigmas of the World,” but in the first lecture he spoke of the two concepts, “matter” and “consciousness.” He said that when contemplating nature we are forced, in thinking systematically, to apply concepts in such a way that we eventually arrive at the notion of matter. Just what this mysterious entity in space we call “matter” is, however, we can never in any way resolve. We must simply assume the concept “matter,” though it is opaque. If only we assume this opaque concept “matter,” we can apply our mathematical formulae and calculate the movements of matter in terms of the formulae. The realm of natural phenomena becomes comprehensible if only we can posit this “opaque” little point millions upon millions of times. Yet surely we must also assume that it is this same material world that first builds up our bodies and unfolds its own activity within them, so that there rises up within us, by virtue of this corporeal activity, what eventually becomes sensation and consciousness. On the one hand we confront a world of natural phenomena requiring that we construct a concept of “matter,” while on the other hand we confront ourselves, experience the fact of consciousness, observe its phenomena, and surmise that whatever it is we assume to be matter must also lie at the foundation of consciousness. But how, out of these movements of matter, out of inanimate, dead movement, there arises consciousness, or even simple sensation, is a mystery that we cannot possibly fathom. This is the other pole of all the uncertainties, all the limits to knowledge: how can we explain consciousness, or even the simplest sensation?","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 Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote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":314,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/322/1920-09-27/p011","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/p011"},{"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/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 322/1920-09-27/p011","passage_number":11,"text":"Zwei Begriffe waren es, die vor Du Bois-Reymonds geistigem Blick standen und von denen er sagt, sie geben die Grenze an, bis an welche die Naturforschung gelangen kann, über die sie aber nicht hinauskommen könne. Später hat er sie um fünf weitere Begriffe vermehrt in seiner Rede über «Die sieben Welträtsel», dazumal aber sprach er von den beiden Begriffen Materie und Bewußtsein. Er sagte: Indem wir die Naturtatsachen überblicken, sind wir gezwungen, solche Begriffe zu verwenden in der systematischen, in der gedanklichen Durchdringung, daß wir zum Schluß auf die Materie kommen. Aber was da eigentlich im Raume spukt, indem wir von Materie sprechen, das können wir niemals irgendwie erforschen. Wir müssen einfach den Begriff der Materie als einen dunklen Begriff aufnehmen. Wenn wir diesen dunklen Begriff der Materie aufnehmen, dann können wir unsere Rechnungsformeln ansetzen, dann können wir die Bewegung der Materie in diese Rechnungsformeln hineinbringen, dann wird uns die äußere Welt, wenn wir nur dieses, ich möchte sagen, dunkle Pünktchen millionen- und aber millionenmal darinnen haben, dann wird uns diese äußere Tatsachenwelt durchschaubar. Aber wir müssen doch annehmen, daß diese materielle Welt auch diejenige ist, die uns selbst zunächst leiblich aufbaut, die ihre Wirksamkeit in uns leiblich entfaltet, so daß durch diese leibliche Wirksamkeit in uns aufsteigt dasjenige, was zuletzt Empfindung und Bewußtsein wird. Wir stehen auf der einen Seite der Tatsachenwelt gegenüber, die uns nötigt, den Materiebegriff zu konstruieren, wir stehen auf der andern Seite uns selbst gegenüber, erfahren die Tatsache des Bewußtseins, beobachten die Bewußtseinserscheinungen, können ahnen, daß dasjenige, was wir in Materie annehmen, auch diesem Bewußtsein zugrunde liegt; aber wie aus diesen Bewegungen der Materie, wie aus diesen ganz leblosen, toten Bewegungen herauskommt dasjenige, was Bewußtsein ist, was schon die einfachste Empfindung ist, das ist niemals zu durchdringen. Das ist der andere Pol aller Ungewißheiten, aller Erkenntnisgrenzen, das Bewußstsein, ja schon die einfachste Empfindung,","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":308,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/322/1920-09-27/p011"}],"english":["GA 322/1920-09-27/p011"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":308,"en_words":314,"ratio":1.02,"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/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. 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